


Watching NCIS

by RatchetFangirls



Category: NCIS
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Watching the Show
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-03
Updated: 2017-03-18
Packaged: 2018-08-12 20:54:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 26,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7948804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RatchetFangirls/pseuds/RatchetFangirls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When McGee uncovers a file on the internet with lives of the team on it, they decide to watch it in MTAC to discover just how much of their lives had been recorded. Gibbs/Fornell</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing. Sorry if anyone is out of character, and parts of the script that I borrowed has been altered for my OTP (Gibbs/Fornell).

Fornell approched Gibbs's desk, his suit and tie neat. Truth be told, killing Sergei didn't make everything better. Diane was still dead, and Emily still only had one parent. He argued a lot less frequently nowadays, but the two men were still missing her dearly.

The FBI agent had been over to Gibbs's house the previous night, since his daughter was over at a friend's house. He remembered being shocked at the food at his house, since there was not much variation. He then decided to take the time and effort to make Gibbs a good dinner for once, as he doubted Gibbs ate anything other than takeout, steak, and the occasional meal Fornell would make him since the death of Shannon Gibbs. Diane, he remembered, used to be particularly annoyed at that fact.

It was a normal day. Ducky and Jimmy were down in autopsy, and Vance was busy in his office. Ellie, Tony, and McGee were all typing on their computers. Gibbs keyboard, however, was starting to get dusty. Though, he shouldn't be all that surprised. Only a couple of people knew of Fornell and Gibbs' relationship, even when they also had Diane. Neither of them were ashamed, but they liked to keep their personal and professional life separate.

"Leroy," he greeted.

"Hello, Tobias," Gibbs put down his phone and brushed aside the cord.

They were on a joint investigation. It was originally an FBI case, a serial killer, actually. But then, the killer decided to take the life of a Marine, and NCIS was involved.

It was a horrible serial killer as well. They still didn't know who it was, but they knew he had the record number of killings in a very long time. Nearly every agent in the D.C. branch was working on the case.

"Boss?" McGee's voice sounded slightly shaken.

Both Gibbs and Fornell turned to him.

"Our guy....he has many different files, you see..." he started to explain.

"Get to the point, McGee." Gibbs looked him in the eye.

"On the files, are videos. And these videos....they are our lives. Each and every one of them has an investigation NCIS has done. Like a television show, kind of."

Ellie and Tony turned to him, both looking curious. 

"So, we are like stars in a crime solving TV show?" Tony asked.

"Kind of. While they are episode length, they've never aired." McGee pressed another file.

This one, however, was different. It appeared on the big plasma screen, like all the videos, so each agent could examine it. But instead of videos, there were pictures. Similar to stalker pictures, there were pictures of all of the victims doing normal things.

Then, there were pictures of Gibbs, Tony, McGee, Ellie, Abby, Ducky, Jimmy, Vance, and even Fornell.

"It's a hit list.." Fornell breathed in sharply.

Ellie glanced at Tony nervously, as this killer seemed fond of using sniper rifles on his targets.

"Perhaps he did want to make this a television show." Tony realized. "You know, get us out of the way so that we couldn't interfere and no one could steal his idea?"

"DiNozzo, go get Abby. McGee and Bishop, Palmer and Ducky. Fornell and I are going to get Vance. Afterwards, we will meet at MTAC. We have to know what is on those files." Gibbs ordered.

The agents scrambled away, each hurrying to retrieve their charge.

At MTAC, everyone sat in one of the movie theater-like chairs.

"So these files have videos from our personal lives. I assume we are going to watch them, to see how much he knows?" Vance inquired.

Gibbs nodded, and McGee put the first video on the MTAC screen.

"What about the case?" Ellie inquired.

"Agent Bishop, I am sure the other agents working it are qualified enough to do it while we watch these." the director decided.

McGee pressed play, and the screen came to life.


	2. Yankee White

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The NCIS team watch Yankee White.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing! I altered the script to make it fit the story. Sorry if anyone is out of character. I borrowed the scripts too. Sorry for any other mistakes. Auto correct is absolutely horrible.

**(Scene opens to a shot of Air Force One preparing for take-off. The President - who both looks and sounds a lot like George W. Bush -- waves as he enters the plane. The flight crew stands at attention the moment he's on board.)**

Tony squinted, trying to remember which case this was.

"How did this person get video of the President?" Fornell looked shocked.

"I do not know, but he just became a threat to national security. We will go through these as quickly as possible. They might have good info." Vance voiced.

"I think this is when we met Kate." Tony's voice held some remorse.

The others nodded.

**PRESIDENT: Bobby, did those babybacks from PapaJoe's make the flight?**

**BOBBY: Yes, sir, Mr. President. They were flown in from San Antonio ten minutes ago, sir.**

**PRESIDENT: Good. Let's have an early lunch.**

**BOBBY: Yes, sir, Mr. President.**

**(The President turns away, putting an arm around the shoulders of the man, presumably Secret Service, behind him. Kate Todd precedes them.)**

Ellie, recognizing one of her predecessors, looked at the faces of her teammates. They showed some remorse, but they seemed to have recovered from her death, at least partially. Which made sense, since it was long ago and her killer was caught.

**PRESIDENT (to man): I love the babybacks from PapaJoe's.**

**MAN: I know, Mr. President.**

**PRESIDENT (to Kate): Wasn't Major Kerry supposed to be handling the Football on this one?**

**KATE: He came down with the flu, Mr. President.**

**(The man raises his arm to indicate the new Football carrier.)**

Everyone who was there recognized the body that was uncovered.

The others were, for now, left in the dark.

**MAN: This is Commander Ray Trapp, Mr. President. He's new on the detail.**

**(Cmdr. Trapp, dressed in Navy whites, stands at attention before the President.)**

**PRESIDENT: Have we met before, Commander?**

**TRAPP: (shakes hands with the President) Yes, sir. On the Abraham Lincoln, Mr. President.**

"Meeting the President twice." Ellie grinned. "He is really lucky."

"Lucky is not the word I would have used to describe this man." Ducky sighed. "His life was unfortunately CUT short."

Bishop gasped. "What happened?"

"She will find out in due time." Vance addressed Ducky. "As I mentioned before, we need to get through these quickly. No matter how disturbing it may be. We need to know how he got these videos."

**PRESIDENT: (smirks) Ah, the Lincoln. (turns to Secret Service man) You know, the trip to the Lincoln was the best day I've had on this job. (turns back to Cmdr. Trapp and waggles a finger at him) Why don't you join me for lunch?**

**TRAPP: Be my pleasure, Mr. President.**

**PRESIDENT: Good, I'll look forward to it.**

**(The President and the Secret Service man walk away. Kate lingers to speak with Cmdr. Trapp, who finally relaxes once the President is out of sight.)**

**KATE: Lunch with the boss on your first day. You're destined for stars on those shoulders, Commander.**

Ellie cocked her head to the side. She and Kate had both commented on his supposed luck or destiny.

But he had neither.

**(Kate leaves, going a different direction than the President did. Cmdr. Trapp sits down, looks off where the President disappeared to, and smiles. Then he reaches over to the side of his chair where a large black briefcase is unobtrusively tucked away and puts his hand on top of it. Air Force One takes off. A flight attendant carries a tray of food down an aisle and sets it down on a table between two people. The crewman from before, Bobby, walks past her to speak with the Secret Service agents.)**

**BOBBY: Agent Baer, Agent Todd, would either of you like anything to eat?**

**BAER: (doesn't even bother looking up) No, thank you.**

**KATE: (smiles politely) I'm fine, thanks.**

"Kate was always so nice." McGee smiled in nostalgia.

"Unlike the other guy. He couldn't even look up! Rude." Abby frowned.

**BOBBY: Very well.**

**(Bobby leaves. Baer gets up.)**

**BAER: I'll be in the Comm. getting an update from Bowman. Keep an eye on things down here.**

**KATE: You expecting a problem, sir?**

**BAER: (turns back to face her) Expect problems, Agent Todd. And with a little luck, you'll never loose the President.**

"And which rule is this, Jethro?" Fornell smirked.

"I don't think there is one..." Tony whispered to McGee.

"Let's see what he says." McGee hissed back.

Gibbs grinned confidently at him. "It falls under Rule #8: Never take anything for granted."

Fornell cursed slightly, hoping to have stumped him.

Tony, McGee, Ellie, and Abby started to laugh silently.

**(Baer jogs up a flight of stairs to the next deck. Kate looks down and smiles ruefully. Moments later, Cmdr. Trapp enters the room with the Football in hand. He moves slowly, almost shuffling. He stumbles, dropping the briefcase. Kate looks at him in concern. Cmdr. Trapp stares at his hand, flexing his fingers. He turns and flashes a grin at Kate.)**

Bishop widened her eyes. Was this it? Were they going to watch a man die, only seconds after they were laughing?

**TRAPP: I fumbled in my first Army-Navy game, but (picks up briefcase) I recovered the ball.**

**(Cmdr. Trapp carefully places the Football beside a chair while Kate looks on, then turns to offer her his hand.)**

**TRAPP: Ray Trapp.**

**KATE: (shakes hands) Kate Todd.**

**TRAPP: (face flushed red, sweating) Eating with the President was... (swallows) a bigger sweat than... (starts wandering in circles) making a ni-night [trap??].**

Ellie stiffened. She never liked seeing anyone die. No one did, except psychopaths probably.

**(Cmdr. Trapp collapses into his seat.)**

**KATE: (concerned) Are you ill, Commander?**

**(Cmdr. Trapp starts going into convulsions, falling to the floor.** **Kate gets up to help him, issuing orders through her wrist comm.)**

**KATE (via comm.): Slammer Rose for a medical emergency, section one.**

Gibbs smiled slightly, remembering Kate. She was a damn good agent.

Everyone else tried to be quiet, as Vance had reminded them that this was a matter of national security and needed to be done quickly. They found it hard, though.

**(While Kate tries to stabilize Cmdr. Trapp's head, Agent Baer rushes back down the stairs.)**

**BAER: What's wrong?**

**KATE: I don't know.**

**(Three medics come running down the aisle.)**

**(Kate stands back to give them room.)**

**DOCTOR: What've you got?**

**FEMALE MEDIC: He's not breathing.**

**DOCTOR: No pulse.**

**FEMALE MEDIC: Give me the bag.**

**(The doctor gets up to grab the medical bag, when Kate suddenly realises something.)**

**KATE: Doctor! He just had lunch with the President.**

"He was okay, right?" Jimmy inquired.

"I'm sure if he wasn't all right, you would have heard about it Mr. Palmer." Ducky responded.

**DOCTOR: Oh my god!**

**BAER: Let's go. (to Kate) You stay with the Football.**

**(As the doctor and Agent Baer run off to check on the President, Kate reaches over and takes the briefcase back over to her seat out of the way. The other two medics are still working on Cmdr. Trapp. One medic is straddling his body doing CPR, the other rhythmically squeezing an air bag over his mouth.)**

**FEMALE MEDIC: Halt compressions, let's check his pulse.**

**(The female medic removes the air bag to check his pulse. Kate looks on worriedly, and when we look back at Cmdr. Trapp we see he's started foaming at the mouth.)**

**FEMALE MEDIC: There's no pulse. Let's get his shirt off.**

**(She starts cutting his shirt off with scissors. Kate watches anxiously.)**

Tony sighed in remembrance.

***INTRO CREDITS***

"That was just creepy." McGee shuddered.

"He does have good taste in music though." Tony bopped his head appreciatively.

Gibbs hand collided with the back of his head, much to Fornell's amusement.

"Sorry, Boss."

**(Gibbs is working on his boat in his basement, diligently planing the wood smooth. The television is playing quietly in the background when the phone rings. He walks around the skeleton frame of his boat to the phone mounted on the side wall and answers it.)**

"Gibbs...." Vance looked at him. "It might be a good idea if you were....relocated for the time being."

"What?" Gibbs looked annoyed.

"If he got parts from inside your house and you are on the hit list....I'm not suggesting. It is an order, Agent Gibbs." the director looked his agent in the eye. "If anyone else's house is also in these, especially the inside of them, they will also be relocated."

"Leroy can stay over at my house." Fornell interjected.

Vance nodded, barely able to hide his amusement. The two had admitted that they were in a relationship to him after he questioned if there would be any problems cooperating. "That'll do. Thank you."

Gibbs looked at Fornell before shrugging. "Fine."

Tony looked between the two. Gibbs didn't argue with that? Something was definitely going on here. He looked towards McGee, Abby, and Ellie and nodded. It was time for Operation Sunflower, their codename for "spying on Gibbs."

**GIBBS: Yeah. Gibbs.**

**(It's Tony on the other end, calling from the NCIS office headquarters. He appears to be the only one currently at work.)**

Vance stiffened once more. "So he got into Air Force One, Gibbs's house, and now the headquarters..."

"Our serial killer must be someone with a lot of connections or with very modern technology. Also, our killer could just as likely be a woman. While female killers generally use things such as poisons, it would be wise to not assume anything until we know more." Ducky informed.

"Like, what sort of tech?" Abby inquired.

"We will be able to hopefully identify it later on."

**TONY (to Gibbs, over the phone): A Navy commander carrying the Football on Air Force One just carked in the air.**

**GIBBS: (checks his watch) Where'd they land?**

**TONY: Wichita, Kansas. (types at his computer) The President's transferring to the backup bird. (reading from computer screen) I booked us on a 15: 00 United flight out of Reagan, stops in Dallas before going on to Wichita.**

**GIBBS: That the best you can do?**

**TONY: It's Saturday, Gibbs. (puts on coat) You know, if we had our own jet...**

Ellie raised an eyebrow.

"What? It would be so cool if we had our own!" Tony bounced up and down.

**GIBBS: We don't. Ducky's buds with coroners across the country. See if you can't get one of them to hold the body until we can get there.**

**TONY: Alright.**

**(Gibbs hangs up. As he goes to leave the basement, he passes the television and we see it's currently showing a news report.)**

**NEWS ANCHOR (on TV): I'm Doris McMillon, with a CBS news update. We have just learned that Air Force One has made an unscheduled stop at Wichita's mid-continent airport. Details are sketchy-**

**(Gibbs flicks the power off once he gets upstairs, and the TV goes black instantly.)**

***cut to Airport***

**(Gibbs and Tony are just coming off an escalator behind a couple of flight attendants. Tony is weighed down with several bags, Gibbs just has one small bag and his ever-present cup of coffee.)**

Gibbs sighed once more, knowing that he was out of coffee and wouldn't likely get another for a long time.

Tony looked at his boss nervously. "A Gibbs without coffee..." he started.

"Is a Gibbs without a conscience...." McGee finished.

They had just made that up, but it seemed to fit. Gibbs made all sorts of crazy, unethical decisions when he didn't have coffee and was generally not a fun person to be around.

"We gotta get him some coffee," Abby added quietly.

Luckily, their coffee-deprived boss didn't hear a word of their conversation.

**TONY: FBI, CIA, DEA, ATF, even NYPD have private jets.**

**GIBBS: At 36 cents a mile. You wanna drive?**

**TONY: It's humiliating.**

"How so?" Vance raised an eyebrow.

"Well, if they have their own, they think that they are high and migh-"

"You wanna finish that, DiNozzo?" Fornell raised an eyebrow.

"Not in particular, no."

**(They arrive at a Security check-point. Tony puts his bags down on the ground, Gibbs lays his single one on the conveyor belt.)**

**GIBBS (to Security Guard): We're LEOs.**

**SECURITY GUARD: (smiling) Capricorn.**

Bishop and Abby laughed a little. It was quite humorous.

**TONY: LEO, short for Law Enforcement Officer.**

**(Tony hands the Security Guard the paperwork for their weapons, while Gibbs shows him his badge.)**

**GIBBS: You new at this, (leans over to read Security Guard's nametag) Dennis?**

**DENNIS: (nods) First week. (Gibbs chuffs a laugh while Dennis checks out the badge) N.C.I.S.... never heard of it.**

The agents all groaned in unison.

"No one ever recognizes us." Tony whined. "Got arrested..."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow as Fornell leaned over.

"I recognize you." he hissed.

Gibbs shot him a look. It was definitely going to be a long day if they are trying to keep their relationship a secret and Fornell keeps on acting like this.

"Tobias..." he whispered in warning.

"It is likely going to be in the videos anyway." he answered confidently.

**GIBBS (leaning over to speak quietly to Tony): That's embarrassing.**

**DENNIS: NCIS? Anything like "CSI"?**

**TONY: (sarcastically) Only if you're dyslexic.**

**DENNIS: Okay. You can go ahead and go around the, uh, metal detector, but your bags have got to go through the scanner.**

Fornell started laughing so hard that no noise came out of his mouth.

**GIBBS: Wait a minute, you're letting us take weapons aboard but you want to scan our bags?**

**DENNIS: Well, you've got permits for the weapons but you don't for the bags.**

**(Tony starts piling the bags onto the conveyor belt.)**

**TONY (to Gibbs): We really need our own jet.**

**DUCKY (calls out from other side of security gate): Dennis! Those bags are mine.**

"Dr. Mallard?" Jimmy inquired.

"Sometimes the easiest way to get things done quickly is to lie." Ducky said good-naturedly.

**DENNIS: Ohh! (to Gibbs and Tony) Why didn't you tell me you were subbing for the Doc? (smiles) You've got a bag permit.**

**DUCKY (to Gibbs and Tony): Move it, men.**

"And I did quite enjoy that as well." Ducky grinned.

**(Tony and Gibbs exchange looks as they gather the bags to follow Ducky. Ducky turns and starts walking away.)**

**DUCKY: We don't want to miss our flight. (smirks)**

***cut to Air Force One, night***

**(Air Force One is currently surrounded by emergency vehicles, lit up on the tarmac only by the various flashing lights of the vehicles. Inside is an assortment of official personnel, from Secret Service to FBI to State Troopers to Airport Security to the County Coroner's office. A Kansas local with a "CORONER" jacket on is stalling the proceedings.)**

"And our killer is back on Air Force One." Vance grimaced. "This guy needs to be caught. Preferably before he tries to kill the President."

"Or anyone, for that matter." Fornell added.

**CORONER: If J. Edgar Hoover was alive, I'd tell him what I'm telling you. This body is in Wichita County, and as County Coroner I have jurisdiction. No one moves it until the M.E. says they can.**

"But he died in air..." Tony couldn't help but argue. "They only landed their for convenience."

"This happened a very long time ago..." McGee reminded.

"But I have all these awesome comebacks I've been thinking up since then!" the senior agent mentioned.

**FORNELL: Your jurisdiction doesn't supersede the FBI on Air Force One.**

**KATE (interrupting from her seat, hidden behind everyone else): It's not Air Force One, Agent Fornell. (the men move to clear a path for her) When the President departed on the backup plane, it became Air Force One. This is now Alpha Foxtrot 2900.**

Tony grinned. "She always had one in store."

**FORNELL: Don't get into this pissing contest, Agent Todd. As you pointed out, the President's gone - it's no longer a Secret Service problem.**

"So did you." Gibbs whispered.

Fornell laughed.

**KATE: Look. This could be a natural death, or it could be a botched attempt to murder the President. Until I know which, it's my problem.**

They watched it like it was a tennis match.

**CORONER: Uh, I don't give a damn which one of you is boss. You ain't moving this body until the M.E. says you can.**

**(Ducky enters, followed by Tony and Gibbs.)**

**DUCKY: You talking about me, Elmo?**

"Do you guys do this frequently?" Abby giggled.

"Do what frequently?" Tony inquired.

"Lie and act to get jurisdiction."

"They do." Fornell looked cross.

**ELMO: Ducky! How'd you like those steaks I air-expressed you?**

**DUCKY: Ah, delicious!**

**FORNELL (leaning over to speak quietly with Kate): He "air-expressed" him steaks?**

**KATE: (shrugging) It's a big state. Look how long it took him to get here.**

**ELMO: (points out the players) Uh, Agent Fornell here is FBI. Agent Todd, Secret Service. Ducky, they've been fighting over this body like two hounds over a t-bone.**

"That is what agencies tend to do." Abby sighed.

**DUCKY: Well, it's our t-bone for the moment.**

**GIBBS: All these LEOs are contaminating the potential crime scene.**

"That reminds me..." Gibbs looked to Fornell. "If you really wanted the body, why act like you don't know me?"

"On the contrary. I usually would want the body, but isn't it kind to let you have your fun once in a while?" Fornell shot back.

Gibbs grinned.

Tony looked towards his conspirators in Operation Sunflower. They nodded stealthily, information received.

**DUCKY: Oh yes, my assistant's right. Everyone who boarded in Wichita will have to evacuate the plane.**

**FORNELL: I'm not going anywhere.**

**KATE: I flew in on it.**

**DUCKY: Very well, you two can stay. But everyone else must deplane.**

**ELMO: Alright, you heard the M.E., let's move it boys. Ducky, what do you think?**

**DUCKY (examining body): No outward sign of trauma.**

The agents watched, wondering how, in a plane full of agents from multiple agencies, no one noticed that they were being recorded.

**KATE: He was stricken after having lunch with the President.**

**TONY: Yeah, how is the President?**

**KATE: He's fine. His physician cleared him to fly on to L.A.**

**GIBBS: What happened?**

**(Both Kate and Fornell look askance at Gibbs's softly-voiced question, but Gibbs just stares placidly at them. After a moment, Kate answers.)**

"I was so confused." Fornell sighed. "I mean, I knew you were acting. But where was all the strong, commanding personality?"

"I believe you answered your own question," Ducky shared a secret smile with Vance, as they were the only two who knew about their relationship. "He was acting."

Only two that knew besides Emily, of course.

**KATE: When the Commander returned from lunch, he had an equilibrium problem and his grip was too weak to hold his briefcase.**

**DUCKY: Did he gradually become ill, or was it sudden?**

**KATE: Sudden. He started to convulse and collapsed. The President's physician believed that the Commander had a stroke.**

**TONY (taking notes): Kinda young for a brain fart.**

**DUCKY: Looks like a natural death to me, Elmo. They can leave with the body as long as they sign releases.**

"That is going to tick them off." Jimmy grimaced.

**FORNELL (to Elmo): Why the hell didn't you say that?**

"Fiery." Ducky smirked, looking between Gibbs and Fornell.

**ELMO: Couldn't. Like I said, it's the M.E.'s decision. Release forms are in my car.**

**FORNELL (to Kate): Let's go. We can work out jurisdiction for Washington on the flight to Dallas.**

**(Kate glances at Gibbs before leaving. The look on her face is inscrutable.)**

**ELMO: Ah, Ducky... about those soft-shell crabs?**

**(Kate pauses behind Ducky and Elmo at this exchange, throwing another odd look Ducky's way. You can tell she's figuring out that things aren't exactly as they seem. She exits the plane behind Fornell.)**

"She was always so clever." Abby beamed.

**DUCKY: Ah, you'll have them by the weekend.**

**ELMO: Ten-four, partner. (leaves)**

**(Once alone, Ducky sighs in relief and Gibbs takes over command of the crime scene. Quietly.)**

"And everything returns to normal." McGee said quietly.

**GIBBS: Tony, go hot. Show the pilot your credentials, get us the hell out of here.**

Fornell muttered something about "bad interagency cooperation."

"What?" Gibbs asked, almost innocently.

"Never mind." he would never win against the man.

**(Tony starts down an aisle, but Gibbs calls him back.)**

**GIBBS: Hey! (points upwards) Cockpit's on the top deck.**

"Yeah, Tony." McGee tutted. "Wrong way."

"May I remind you McHypocrite, when you were a probie, you got lost way more than I did." Tony shot back.

"Yeah, right." he didn't look convinced.

"Gibbs!" Tony turned to his boss, perhaps out of desperation. "Who got lost more, me or McGee?"

Gibbs sighed, looked between the two agents who were staring back at him earnestly. "McGee..." he answered reluctantly.

"Ha! Take that, McLost!"

"I have to say, though." Gibbs interjected, knowing what it was like when children had arguments like this from experience with his own daughter and her friends. "Tony was originally with Baltimore, he could very well have gotten lost a lot there as well."

**TONY: (cluelessly) I knew that.**

**(Gibbs smirks as Tony climbs the stairs.)**

**GIBBS (crouching beside body): Enjoy playing my boss?**

**DUCKY: (nods) I did, rather.**

Ducky chuckled.

**GIBBS: What do you think happened, Duck?**

**DUCKY: Good God, Gibbs, I barely met the deceased.**

**GIBBS: I think DiNozzo's right. Naval aviator, stroking at his age?**

**DUCKY: He could have been born with an aneurysm. They're timebombs in the body. I remember this young promising basso-perfundo in London. He was only 27 when he keeled over, in the middle on an Notaro aria-**

**(Kate storms back onto the plane, her hand on her holstered weapon at her hip.)**

**KATE: Who the hell are you people? (to Gibbs) You're no M.E. assistant (to Ducky) and there's no soft-shell crab within a thousand miles.**

"Woah." Ellie grinned. "She picked up on that?"

"She was already suspicious, but as we said, she was so clever." Abby sighed in nostalgia.

**DUCKY (to Gibbs): Sorry.**

**GIBBS (showing his badge): NCIS. We flew down here from Washington to take over the investigation.**

**KATE (drops her hand from her weapon, exasperated): First the FBI tries to muscle in, and now NCIS.**

"We were not 'muscling in'!" Fornell snarled. "We were trying to gain jurisdiction."

"Yeah, you were." Gibbs said offhandedly.

"Not!"

Ducky smiled slightly. Jethro's relationship with Tobias was incredibly beneficial. He couldn't remember seeing him act like this around anyone else.

Tony's eyes narrowed. What could possibly be going on to get Gibbs to act like this?

**GIBBS: Yeah, well, I do believe this is a dead naval officer.**

**KATE: Who died on Air Force One, after having lunch with the President it's my job to protect.**

**GIBBS: Okay, we can share jurisdiction. You can be on my team.**

**KATE: Your team? Why should you head the investigation?**

"Oh..." Tony said quietly, as if his boss had just gotten burned.

 He once again got Gibbs-slapped.

"Thank you, Boss."

**GIBBS: You ever worked a crime scene, Agent Todd?**

**KATE: I am a Secret Service agent.**

**GIBBS: (smirks) I thought not.**

**KATE: Well don't dismiss me like that! Okay, I earned my jock-strap.**

**GIBBS: Yeah, does it ever give you that empty feeling?**

**KATE: What?**

**GIBBS: Your jock-strap.**

**KATE: No. Like some species of frogs, I grow what I need. (smiles brightly)**

**(Gibbs smirks back, obviously impressed and enjoying the exchange. Then Tony interrupts, scrambling down the stairs.)**

"Desperate, I see." McGee interjected.

Tony glared playfully at him.

**DUCKY: Gibbs! Pilot won't take off until the Secret Service chick gives us the (sees Kate, pauses a beat) thumbs up.**

**K** **ATE: (smirks at Gibbs) I think that just made it my team.**

**GIBBS: No. It means we'll just have to hijack Air Force One. Tony, escort Agent Todd off this aircraft and close the hatch.**

"That is muscling in." Fornell gestured towards the screen.

"Yeah, well, I never denied it." Gibbs shrugged.

 

**KATE (incredulous): You're not serious. Wait! (chases after Gibbs up the stairs) Okay, okay! Your team, but only because I don't want to delay us further by having to shoot you.**

**(Kate offers her hand to seal the deal, and she and Gibbs shake on it. Outside the plane, Fornell is running up the steps to the hatch when Tony suddenly appears in front of him.)**

Fornell groaned slightly.

**FORNELL: Damnit, Agent Todd, let's get this show on the road!**

**TONY: Oh gosh, I'm sorry. We, uh, overbooked the flight. (closes hatch)**

**FORNELL: What the hell are you doing?**

**(As the plane starts to taxi away, Tony looks out a window and waves at the thwarted FBI agents. Fornell yells at the people on the ground.)**

"Wasn't he just in a delightful mood?" Tony asked cheerfully.

"Yes, I think he was," McGee played along, ignoring Fornell's outrage.

**FORNELL: What's going on? Stop!**

**(Fornell and the two agents behind him run back down the now abandoned staircase to confront Elmo, the County Coroner guy.)**

**FORNELL: Alright, do you know what the hell's going on?**

**ELMO: Guess Ducky decided to take the body to Washington.**

**FORNELL: Why did your Medical Examiner take the body to Washington?**

**ELMO: (slyly) I never said h** **e was my Medical Examiner.**

"Coroners unite!" Abby threw a fist into the air.

Jimmy laughed, throwing one of his own up as well.

**(Then the jets kick in to high gear, and everyone flinches from the blast of air.)**

**FORNELL: Then who the hell's Medical Examiner is he?!**

**ELMO: Ducky? He works for NCIS.**

**(Fornell watches the plane take off. In the air, Gibbs is in the Comm. speaking with the NCIS Director, Tom Morrow, over videoconference.)**

**D** **IRECTOR (on comm.): Did you have to literally slam the door in the FBI's face?**

"Yes, because they knew that they would lose the jurisdiction if they tried to compromise with the FBI." Fornell muttered.

"You're just bitter you lost." Gibbs didn't appear concerned.

**GIBBS: There were more of them than us.**

**DIRECTOR (at MTAC): (wryly) There's always more of them than us. You ever hear of interagency cooperation?**

**GIBBS: Yes, sir. I got the Secret Service Agent-in-Charge at Wichita to agree to share the investigation.**

**DIRECTOR: (surprised) Willingly?**

Tony laughed incredulously.

**GIBBS: (ruefully) Well, we could use a little backup when we land at Andrews.**

**DIRECTOR: Eh, that's what I thought. We're spread a bit thin, we've got no agents.**

**GIBBS: If the FBI gets this body, we won't see an autopsy report until after they leak it to the Washington Post.**

"If you agreed to compromise..." Fornell muttered.

**DIRECTOR: Then make sure they don't get it. (Gibbs nods) Will this Secret Service agent stand up to the FBI?**

**GIBBS: I don't know. She's got balls.**

**(The Director laughs, then the scene changes back to the crime scene. Kate is sitting in a nearby chair watching Ducky insert a thermometer into the body's liver.)**

**KATE: (incredulously) Are you starting the autopsy?**

Jimmy shook his head.

**DUCKY: Goodness, no. I'm just taking his liver temperature to corroborate the time of death.**

**KATE (consults her PDA): The President's physician declared him dead at 20: 32 Zulu.**

**DUCKY: It never hurts to double check. (thermometer beeps)**

**(Tony steps up beside her, pen and paper in hand.)**

**TONY (to Kate): Excuse me, you'll need to stand clear so I can take measurements for my crime scene sketches, thanks.**

**KATE: Sketches? You've taken a dozen photos.**

McGee raised an eyebrow. It was odd seeing Kate so oblivious to the workings of a crime scene.

**TONY (picks up a magazine, "Exotic Resorts", with a bikini-clad model on the cover): Tell me her measurements.**

**KATE: Your pathetic.**

**TONY: No, I'm serious. Can you tell if she's (looks at magazine) 5'4" in a 35-C, or 5'7" in a 36-D? You can't, not from a photo. That's why we do sketches, take measurements. (pushes her back out of the way) Thanks.**

**DUCKY: I've got 19: 50 Zulu, that's nearly an hour earlier.**

"Why would that be?" Bishop inquired.

"I must remind everyone once again that we must finish this as quickly as possible." Vance groaned. This was going to be like reprimanding disobedient students at school.

**KATE: Well, then you miscalculated.**

**(Gibbs comes jogging down the stairs.)**

**GIBBS: What's the problem?**

**DUCKY: There's apparently a discrepancy between my time of death and the President's physician's.**

**GIBBS: Log yours. (Ducky bends to do so) Enough sketches, Tony. Agent Todd's gonna give you a floor plan.**

Fornell gagged. "You are not even going to see if he made a mistake."

Gibbs nodded, Groening slightly as he started feeling side-effects of coffee withdrawal. The shop had been closed this morning, and the coffee anywhere else was crap.

**KATE: Oh, no, she won't.**

**(Kate walks off to follow Gibbs. Ducky moves over to speak with Tony.)**

**DUCKY: I thought your photo analysis was brilliant, Tony. But wasn't 36-D a bit of wishful thinking?**

Tony grinned.

"Come on." McGee raised an eyebrow.

"What can I say, McJealous? I have gotten Ducky's seal of approval."

**TONY (looking at magazine again): You think?**

**(Gibbs and Kate are meanwhile walking down an aisle, arguing. Well, Kate is.)**

**G** **IBBS: What can you tell me about Commander Trapp?**

**KATE: I can't give him Air Force One floor plans, they're top secret.**

**GIBBS: Come on, I saw this in a Harrison Ford movie.**

Tony's jaw dropped. Gibbs, making a movie reference? Never!

"I do have a television, DiNozzo." Gibbs glared at him.

"Of course, Boss."

**KATE: Well that's Hollywood speculation, you're asking for the real thing.**

**GIBBS: Isn't the President's head down here someplace?**

**KATE: No.**

**GIBBS: Now this was in the movie! (looks around the conference room he just walked into, indicat** **es the chair at the head of the table) Yeah! Harrison was sitting right here.**

"I do believe that you are having fun annoying her, Jethro." Ducky grinned.

**KATE: I can't risk those plans getting out on the Internet.**

**GIBBS: NCIS does not leak. These plans get out, you can shoot DiNozzo.**

"Boss!" Tony clutched his chest, as if he was shot. "How could you say such a thing! I've been wounded!" he collapsed into his chair playfully.

**KATE: (unamused) No, I think I'm destined to shoot you.**

Bishop laughed silently, amused by the situation. She felt like she would have gotten along well with Kate.

**GIBBS: What about Commander Trapp?**

**KATE: Only met him this morning. He just received his Yankee White clearance and was Major Kerry's backup. The major has the flu.**

**GIBBS (walking away, still exploring): We'll have to get a Navy doc to verify that.**

**KATE: He's got it. (waves her hands in frustration) But go ahead, and waste a doctor's time double-checking like your... Ducky.**

**(Gibbs stops in front of cabinet, with a keypad lock on it.)**

**GIBBS: This is where the terrorists got their weapons in the movie. (starts playing with keypad)**

"Are you playing with it?" Fornell asked incredulously.

"Yup." Gibbs answered before falling silent once again.

**KATE: Oh, that is as ridiculous as the President's "escape capsule".**

**GIBBS: Anybody switch planes with the President?**

**KATE: The President was put on a separate plane. Everyone else boarded the backup excepts three stewards who were put in the Press cabin.**

**GIBBS: What'd you keep them for? (opens curtains to Press cabin, waves at stewards) Make coffee?**

_If only...._ Gibbs sighed, thinking about coffee.

**KATE: I may not know the finer points of investigating like sticking needles in liver or measuring swimsuit models, but I do know enough to hold the stewards who prepared and served the President's lunch.**

Tony laughed loudly. He sure did miss Kate's sass.

**GIBBS: Hmm, okay.**

**KATE: You want to question--?**

**GIBBS: No, they're not going anywhere. We've got a crime scene to investigate. Rule number one, never let suspects stay together.**

**KATE: Well I didn't consider them suspects.**

"What else would they be?" Ellie inquired, looking confused.

"Maybe she thought they could have been witnesses or even other victims." McGee shrugged.

**GIBBS: Why'd you hold them? (passes her some latex gloves) Put these on.**

**KATE: My fingerprints are all over this aircraft.**

**GIBBS: Rule number two, always wear gloves at a crime scene.**

**(By this point, Gibbs has managed to steer them back to the crime scene area. Ducky is kneeling beside the body when they approach.)**

**DUCKY: I believe I know why there's a discrepancy in the time of death. Now since the Commander had lunch with the President, I'm sure the President's physician rushed to evaluate his condition. He also called Trapp's time of death.**

**K** **ATE: Yes, once he was sure the President wasn't in medical danger, he returned and... (realising) He was gone nearly an hour.**

**DUCKY: Yes. I'm sure the autopsy will show that Commander Trapp expired almost immediately.**

"At least he wasn't suffering for very long then." Ellie sighed.

 **K** **ATE: I owe you an apology, Doctor.**

**DUCKY: Oh, please, it's Ducky to my associates. I'm just relieved we straightened it out. It's inconsistencies like this to lead to conspiracy theories. It reminds me of a case once in New Orleans. A jealous husband shot his wife off a Mardi Gras float, right out of the clock at the corner of Bourbon Street.**

**GIBBS: Ah, doc, give it a rest. She's got work to do.**

"I do believe my stories to be entertaining; are they not?" Ducky looked around the room.

"Er...yeah." McGee smiled awkwardly.

"I think they are so cool." Abby grinned.

"Thank you, Abigail." Ducky smiled.

**(Kate smiles at Ducky and gets up to follow Gibbs.)**

**DUCKY (to Kate, as she leaves): I'll tell you the rest later!**

**GIBBS: Rule number three, don't believe what you're told. Double-check.**

**KATE: Should I write these rules in my Palm Pilot, or crochet them on pillows?**

**(They walk into another room. Tony is seated behind the desk, twisting the phone around in his hands. A television is playing in the background.)**

**KATE (indicating Tony): Oh no, I draw the line at him sitting in the President's chair.**

"I couldn't help it! It was practically begging me to sit on it." Tony whined.

**TONY (to Gibbs): He's not using it.**

**KATE: Gibbs!**

**GIBBS (to Tony): If you're finished taking pictures, start bagging and tagging.**

**TONY: Just waiting for you, boss. (gets up)**

"You sure?" Abby laughed. "Something tells me that you just wanted to sit in that chair."

"I will restate what I said earlier. It was practically begging me!" Tony objected.

**KATE: Bagging and tagging what?**

**GIBBS: Well, to start with (indicates lunch) ... everything. (points at chair Tony just left) President was sitting there?**

**KATE: Pretty good bet, since it is his desk.**

**(Tony passes Gibbs an evidence bag.** **Gibbs starts instructing Kate on proper investigative technique.)**

"If she wasn't your agent at the time, why did you explain this to her?" Bishop inquired.

"Wasn't about to let her contaminate the crime scene. Plus I wanted to hire her." Gibbs shrugged.

**GIBBS: Okay, to maintain the chain of custody, take the item - in this case, Commander Trapp's lunch - place it in the evidence bag. (he does so, seals it, the folds it over to write on the label) Seal it, record all pertinent information, initial across the seal.**

**(Gibbs then passes the filled evidence bag to Tony with a "Keep it cold" order. Tony hands him a new evidence bag. Gibbs turns to Kate with it.)**

**GIBBS: Okay, why don't you try it?**

**(Kate gets queasy, throws a hand up over her mouth, and runs out of the room. Gibbs follows with the evidence bag.)**

**GIBBS: Oh, wait a minute! Hey, wait! Wait a minute! Whoa! Stop! (he corners her against the bathroom door, turns her around, and shoves the open evidence bag in her face) In here, in here...**

The agents burst out laughing.

**(Kate vomits into the evidence bag. Gibbs seals and labels it.)**

**KATE: Can I rinse now that you've got your evidence?**

**GIBBS: Yeah, sure.**

**(Kate gives him a disgruntled look, opens the door to the bathroom and disappears inside. Gibbs finishes labelling the evidence bag then hands it to Tony.)**

"Thanks, Boss. I really needed that." Tony grimaced.

McGee shot him a look.

"What, McAlarm?" the senior field agent whispered. "He seems to be in a good mood."

"But he hasn't had any coffee..."

Tony laughed uneasily.

**GIBBS: Log it. Go find Ducky.**

**TONY: You think she's got whatever killed the commander?**

**(Gibbs just shakes his head, having no answer. Tony leaves, Gibbs sits down and looks out a window at the clouds passing by.)**

***cut to Presidential rally***

**ANNOUNCER: Please join me in welcoming President George W. Bush. (crowd cheers)**

**AGENT BAER (in voice over): Don't threaten me, Tom. I'm not in your food chain. Fornell is on a smaller corporate plane, calling the Secret Service agent patrolling the Presidential rally.**

**FORNELL: If NCIS does the autopsy, they'll control the investigation. You want that?**

"Did you care what he wanted?" Gibbs raised an eyebrow.

Fornell shook his head. "No,"

**BAER: Commander Trapp was a Naval officer, they have every right to do the autopsy.**

**FORNELL: Damnit Bill, they're bush league. We have assets those cowboys can only salivate over.**

"Excuse me?" Gibbs looked affronted.

"I stand by my words."

**BAER: Don't underestimate NCIS.**

**FORNELL: Oh they're good, at making drug busts and catching sailors who've jumped ship. But an attack on the President?**

**BAER: The President's doctor thought that Commander Trapp had a stroke.**

**FORNELL: Maybe he did, but if he was poisoned... You want to put the man's life in the hands of retread cops and ex-MPs?**

**BAER: If you withhold so much as a comma out of the report...**

**FORNELL: You'll get copies of everything before the ink dries.**

**BAER: I'll order Agent Todd to turn the body over to the FBI at Andrews, but I can't control NCIS.**

"Just when I was starting to like him." Abby looked cross.

**FORNELL: With us joined at the hip, all they can do is watch. And bitch. (hangs up) We're back in the ballgame.**

***cut back to Air Force One***

**(Ducky is examining Kate, who is lying stretched out on a couch.)**

**DUCKY: Low temperature. I think it's a stomach virus.**

**KATE: I know it is. Did you use that thermometer on cadavers?**

**DUCKY: (laughs) Would you rather I use the liver probe?**

Tony shuddered.

"If you are showing this much interest, Anthony, I could always..." Ducky offered.

"No thanks," the agent interrupted.

**GIBBS: Why you so sure it was the flu?**

**KATE: (sighs) It's the same symptoms Major Kerry had.**

**DUCKY: Did you work together recently?**

**KATE: No.**

**DUCKY: Well if you didn't work with him, then how...? Ah!**

**KATE: Did you think I was a virgin?**

Tony laughed like a hyena.

"Seriously?" McGee inquired.

"Oh, McVirgin, I know this must be a foreign topic for you-"

"Tony!" McGee glared at him. "I have been in relationships before, you know!"

"Yes, I know, McFeisty."

**DUCKY: (embarrassed) I'd... hoped not.**

**(Ducky leaves and Kate chuckles. Gibbs just sits there watching her. She gets comfortable, staring back at him.)**

**KATE: You gonna lecture me about sleeping with people you work with?**

**GIBBS: Nope.**

Tony looked surprised, as he had expected a discussion on the rules coming up.

**(Kate nods slowly. Gibbs keeps looking at her. Before anyone can say anything else, someone calls for Agent Todd over the intercom system.)**

**COMM: Agent Todd, Agent Baer's on a secure line for you.**

**(Kate sighs and slowly, possibly painfully, sits up.)**

**GIBBS: You want me to take that call for you?**

**KATE: I'd have to be dead.**

"She sounds determined." Bishop commented.

"She was." Abby agreed.

**(S** **he leaves and Gibbs nods to himself, laughing. Meanwhile, Tony is sitting in an empty office using the desk to interview the flight crew.)**

**TONY: And how long have you been on Air Force One?**

**CREWMAN: Five years, sir. Two with President Clinton, three with President Bush.**

**(Gibbs walks in and heads straight for the bathroom, pulling his zipper down on the way. Tony wraps the interview up.)**

**TONY: Alright. Well, thank you very much, Chief Steward.**

**REWMAN: Yes, sir.**

**(The steward leaves and Gibbs questions Tony from the bathroom.)**

"Tony!" Abby gasped dramatically. "Privacy!"

**GIBBS: What'd you get?**

**TONY: Ah, food security's very tight. Incognito purchases, randomly selected stores. No one knows their buying for Air Force One.**

**(While Tony is talking and Gibbs is peeing, Ducky enters the room. Tony motions for him to be quiet, pointing at the bathroom, and grabs a camera. Ducky quickly snaps a picture of Tony sitting behind the desk, then they switch places so Tony can do the same for Ducky. Tony is giving Gibbs a verbal report the whole time. Once done, they both retake their places and act as if nothing at all happened.)**

"You could say that it called to Ducky too." Tony grinned.

"We saw an opportunity and took it." Ducky agreed.

**TONY: Stewards usually prepare all the food, but today the President had ribs and coleslaw flown in from a smokehouse in San Antonio. So they only reheated them and served them.**

**GIBBS: Anybody else have ribs?**

**TONY: No.**

**DUCKY: Gibbs, if the ribs were poisoned, then how come the President wasn't affected?**

**GIBBS: Maybe he's used to PapaJoe's barbecue. (flushes) If you two are through taking pictures of each other, maybe we can move that body out.**

**(Gibbs leaves and Tony and Ducky look at each other, caught.)**

"How did you-" Fornell was interrupted.

"Don't ruin the Gibbsyness!" Abby frantically interjected.

"Never mind." the FBI agent gave up.

***cut to Comm.***

**(Kate talking with her boss on the phone in the Comm. The Secret Service is preparing a motorcade for the President.)**

**KATE (on phone): I made a deal with NCIS to share the investigation, sir.**

**BAER: You're not senior enough to make deals, Agent Todd. We're working this with the FBI.**

"Which should have happened." Fornell growled.

**KATE: Sir, these NCIS agents are not just going to turn the body and the evidence over to the FBI.**

**BAER (to driver): Let's go. (to Kate) NCIS had no right to use a local coroner to delay your departure.**

**KATE: You have to see it from their side.**

"Yeah! Go Kate!" Tony cheered.

**BAER: Agent Todd, shut up and listen. I'm giving you a direct order. That's our aircraft, everything living and dead on board is under Secret Service control. Turn the body over to the FBI at Andrews, or the only presidential detail you'll get will be walking Spotty.**

"Now I really don't like him." Abby made a face.

"You knew Kate quit..." Tony looked confused.

"But I never had to meet him." she sighed.

**(Agent Baer hangs up on her. She forcefully puts the phone down, releasing a huff of frustration. The motorcade pulls away. Kate walks back downstairs to the crime scene, but the only one there is Gibbs. Not even the corpse.)**

**KATE: Where's the body?**

**GIBBS: (innocently) I don't know.**

The agents laughed. Gibbs acting innocent was hilarious.

**(They both laugh, knowing he's lying through his teeth.)**

**KATE: (smirks) You move it to the off-ramp for a fast getaway?**

**(Gibbs just grins and drinks his coffee. Kate puts on her coat and takes her own seat as the plane is coming in for a landing.)**

**KATE: It won't work, Gibbs. I've been ordered to turn the body over to the FBI at Andrews.**

"Spoil sport." Tony pouted.

"It was a direct order, though." McGee tried to see logically.

**GIBBS: You could stall them until we get off.**

**KATE: No, I can't. I won't defy a direct order. I'm sorry, Gibbs.**

**GIBBS: Never say you're sorry. (laughingly) Ah, you don't have to crochet that one.**

**(Kate smiles, but is obviously not happy with the situation. Then the Captain's voice comes over the comm.)**

**CAPTAIN: Folks, please fasten your seatbelts, we're beginning our descent into Andrews at this time.**

**(Gibbs and Kate both buckle up and the plane lands.)**

***cut to highway, black FBI SUV driving down the road***

"So mysterious." Abby laughed.

"Why are the cars black?" Palmer asked. "Why not something normal...you know, so that people you guys are trailing have a less likely chance of realizing it?"

"I don't know, Autopsy Gremlin." Tony shook his head, perplexed. "I don't know."

"How did the killer get a camera into that vehicle?" Fornell demanded.

"I don't know." Vance sighed. "But it'll be added to the list. We can probably get his guy for not only the murders but also invasion of privacy."

**FBI AGENT/DRIVER: Why'd you let NCIS have the evidence they bagged on the plane?**

**FORNELL: Since we have the body we control the investigation. If a few ribs and coleslaw saves some face, what's it hurt? If the food was poisoned the President would-**

**(A cell phone rings. Both FBI agents look around. The driver checks his cell to be sure.)**

Tony kicked himself. 

**DRIVER: Not mine, sir.**

**(The phone rings again. Fornell checks his cell as well.)**

**FORNELL: Not mine, either.**

**TONY: Hello?**

**(Both agents look back at the body bag where the voice came from. Tony is inside it, with his cell phone pressed to his ear.)**

McGee laughed. "You didn't."

"I did, McObservant." Tony gestured to the screen rather proudly.

"They thought you were a dead body!" McGee laughed once more.

**GIBBS (voice on cell): We're in the clear, you can get out of the body bag.**

**(The FBI SUV slams to halt in the middle of the road, forcing a driver behind them to serve. Car horns honk.)**

**T** **ONY: I never thought I'd say this, but I'm not sure I want to.**

**(A white van is driving down another road somewhere else. Gibbs and Ducky are in the back with the real body of Cmdr. Trapp.)**

**GIBBS: Fine. You've got to search Commander Trapp's apartment tonight.**

**TONY: Oh, Gibbs, come on! It's 1: 00am.**

"What is one late night to finding a killer?" Gibbs narrowed his eyes.

"Sorry, Boss."

**GIBBS: Agent [Axle Rod??] is trailing you to pick up the body bag when the FBI tosses it.**

**TONY: That's funny, Gibbs, real funny. Especially since- Aaahhh!**

**(Tony trails off as the body bag containing him is dumped out onto the road. Gibbs just calmly hangs up and turns back to look at Ducky.)**

**GIBBS: I guess they found him. (smirk)**

***cut to MTAC***

**(The NCIS Director is videoconferencing with the Secret Service and FBI Directors.)**

**NCIS DIRECTOR: Special Agent Gibbs has been operating under my direct orders.**

"That is probably stretching it a bit." Fornell considered.

"Why would you say that?" Gibbs inquired.

He just laughed instead of answering.

**SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR: Agent Todd was also acting under orders.**

**FBI DIRECTOR: As was Agent Fornell.**

**NCIS DIRECTOR: Then the problem seems to be that my man succeeded where your two... didn't.**

**SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR: Tom, this is no time for turf wars. Not after 9/11. And especially when the President's life may be at risk.**

**NCIS DIRECTOR: I'd like to think this is not about turf, Mark. Rather that we all believe we have the right people for the job. We shouldn't be agency directors if we didn't.**

**SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR: You're offering a shared investigation?**

**NCIS DIRECTOR: I am.**

**FBI DIRECTOR: Who leads? Your man?**

**NCIS DIRECTOR: We do have the body.**

Fornell muttered grossly once more.

**SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR: (sarcastically) Huh.**

***cut to Autopsy***

**GERALD: I found Abby, she's on the way in.**

**GIBBS: Yeah, did you wake her up?**

**GERALD: No, I called her on her cell. Sounded like one phat party.**

**(Gerald leaves, carrying the Commander's uniform wrapped in plastic. Gibbs just blinks in confusion at the terminology.)**

"That was not the right thing for Gerald to say." Abby face-palmed.

"Terminology." Tony waved his hand briefly in the air.

**GIBBS: Find anything Ducky?**

**DUCKY: Nope, and I won't for hours. (lifts an arm, uses a magnifying glass to peer at it) I've just begun examining the body for needle marks.**

**GIBBS: You think somebody stuck him?**

**DUCKY: I don't know.**

**GIBBS: Anything on the uniform?**

**DUCKY: Not that I could see. I've sent it up to Abby.**

**GIBBS: (spots something) What's this?**

**DUCKY: (checks) A mole. Gibbs, go home. Get some sleep. I would if I could, this is gonna take all night. What's left of it.**

**(Gibbs wanders over to the side counter and picks up a roll of paper towel. He lays it down like a pillow on an autopsy bed beside the corpse's and stretches out with a groan of relief. He rolls over onto his side and closes his eyes for a nap.)**

"You sleep in autopsy too!" Abby looked excited. "We could have sleepovers!"

Gibbs laughed.

**GIBBS: Ducky, why would Abby go to a "fat" party?**

"All questions come to mind while trying to sleep." Tony dramatically stated.

**DUCKY: Jethro, (turns off overhead lights) get some sleep.**

**(Ducky goes back to work under the sole light of the spot lamp over the body. Meanwhile, Abby is in her lab examining Cmdr. Trapp's uniform under UV light.)**

**TONY: Abby?**

**ABBY: Yeah?**

**TONY (carrying a box of evidence): Find anything on his uniform?**

**ABBY: Not yet.**

**TONY: Well, I think I found how he was poisoned.**

**(Tony takes the box of evidence bags and starts laying them out on the countertop. Abby follows.)**

**TONY: This guy had enough vitamins, herbs, and organic food to open his own health market. If he was poisoned, I think you'll find it laced into one of these.**

**ABBY (signs label on evidence bag to keep chain of custody): So what are you gonna do while I'm finding poison in a health snack?**

"Die of exhaustion." Tony groaned.

"That would be unlikely." McGee said incredulously.

Tony narrowed his eyes before narrating, "Oh! Weariness overwhelms me as I sink to the floor. My homeostasis is no longer balanced as I am overcome with the final sleep."

**TONY: (yawns) I'll wait.**

**ABBY: There's a futon, by the cabinet over there.**

**TONY: (clasps hands in benediction) Oh, bless you.**

**ABBY: (chuckles) What are you, my priest?**

**TONY: (pause) Curse you?**

Abby laughed. "Perhaps. You know the good books always have curses in them."

**(A** **bby laughs. Tony lays down for a nap under a desk with the futon mattress. Abby goes back to work.)**

***cut to NCIS headquarters. It's obviously a few hours later, the next day.***

**(Ducky points out a yellow spot highlighted on the brain scan of the corpse, which is being displayed on the widescreen television. Everyone is there, including Agents Kate Todd and Fornell.)**

**DUCKY: My neural pathology exam indicates that our victim succumbed to a cerebral embolism. Here, in the parietal lobe. I also found a number of clots, most of them centred in the renal artery.**

**KATE: Isn't that unusual?**

**DUCKY: Oh, not at all. In most cases of arterial thrombosis, clots will develop over a period of minutes or hours, spread to the rest of the body.**

**GIBBS: But what caused them to develop in a healthy young aviator?**

"That is the question." Ducky grinned.

**DUCKY: Abby? (turns the floor over to her)**

**ABBY: Well I did a fibrinogen test. The procoagulate numbers were high, but they weren't off the charts.**

**FORNELL: Any drugs that might induce the clotting?**

**ABBY: Well yeah, but none of those popped up. I only iso'ed the epinephrine that was injected when he got jolted and juiced on the plane.**

**TONY: No vitamins? Herbals?**

**ABBY: The guy was an organic freak. I mean, he probably whizzed green. But none of that'll cottage cheese your blood.**

**KATE: Did you test the food that ingeste** **d on Air Force One?**

**ABBY: Everything that was bagged and tagged. Ribs, coleslaw, barby sauce... it was all negative for toxins. I mean, that stuff will kill ya, but it'll take, like, thirty years. Do you dudes in the Secret Service ever think about throwing yourselves in front of the President's diet?**

The agents chuckled slightly.

**(Gibbs chuckles, Kate smiles ruefully.)**

**FORNELL: So, you're both saying he wasn't murdered?**

**DUCKY: However freakish and tragic, it apparently was a natural death.**

"Just how poison murderers want it to look." Gibbs grumbled.

**FORNELL: I want my people to check your results.**

**DUCKY: Of course. You and Agent Todd will be receiving copies of all our tests.**

**FORNELL: Does it for me. (looks at Tony) How's your butt?**

**TONY: Still bouncing on the beltway.**

**(Fornell leaves. Kate goes to follow, but Gibbs calls her back with a stick of gum.)**

**GIBBS: Kate. (she takes gum) When's the President returning?**

**KATE: Uh, tomorrow. Noon. I'm flying back tonight to rejoin the detail.**

**GIBBS: Mind if I tag along?**

"That isn't what people normally say." McGee shook his head.

"But it is Gibbs." Tony argued.

**(Kate waffles.)**

**GIBBS: (childishly) Please?**

Fornell laughed. "Getting you to say please...did anyone ever manage it? Besides Agent Todd?"

Gibbs hesitated, looking to be in deep contemplation.

"You don't want to share?" the FBI agent continued.

Gibbs gestured back to the screen.

**KATE: (smiling smugly) You can. Your Sig Sauer can't. We have a rule: no weapons on Air Force One unless they're Secret Service.**

**(Kate pops the gum in her mouth. Gibbs shrugs and takes off his sidearm, tucking it away in a drawer. He puts on his coat and follows Kate out.)**

**GIBBS (to Ducky and Abby as he passes): Keep looking.**

**ABBY: (amused) Wow. Gibbs said "please".**

"Amazing." Abby smiled.

***cut to bar***

**(Kate is having a drink with Major Kerry.)**

**KERRY (proposing toast with his beer): To Commander Trapp. (he and Kate clink glasses, drink) To come all the way through the war without a scratch and then die in a stroke... He was in the thick of it on the push to Baghdad.**

**KATE: You never told me that you knew him.**

**KERRY: We had a drink when he reported to the Whitehouse. He wanted to know what tips I could give him.**

**KATE: About the Football detail?**

**KERRY: Yeah. Where he could find a good gym. Dry cleaners. Grocery mart. Local watering hole.**

"How did our killer even decide to do this?" Bishop inquired. "It was just a normal investigation....why did he choose you guys? I mean, he had to have if he knew to follow you guys around, right?"

They contemplated this for a moment.

**KATE: Did you tell him about this place?**

**KERRY: No. He might have run into us and that wouldn't have been good, would it? (takes her hand)**

**KATE: (looks at their hands) No, it wouldn't. (slides her hand out from under his)**

**KERRY: Huh. He wouldn't have run into us after tonight though, would he?**

**KATE: (whispering) No.**

**KERRY: Worried about losing your job?**

**KATE: Worried about losing the President. When we work together my focus just wouldn't be a hundred percent. I'm sorry, Tim. That's the way it's gotta be and you know**   **it.**

Tony winced sympathetically, knowing what it was like to be dumped.

**(Major Kerry helps Kate out into her car and watches as she drives away. He goes to his own car, and as he gets in we see he has started to sweat profusely. He tugs at his collar but quickly starts convulsing and falls over, white foam dripping from his mouth. He's obviously dead.)**

Bishop looked alarmed. What connected them except their position and the time they met?

***cut to Air Force One***

**(The President reboards the plane.)**

**PRESIDENT: Good to see you again, Major. (pats the new Football carrier on the arm) Always good to see ya. (to Agent Baer) Folks, that was a job well done.**

**BAER: Thank you, sir.**

**PRESIDENT: What do you say we head home?**

**BAER: Absolutely.**

**PRESIDENT: Alright. I agree.**

**KATE (to Baer): Sir? I'm surprised that you didn't object to Agent Gibbs riding with us?**

**BAER: He's here because his gut is still churning, isn't it?**

Gibbs nodded.

**KATE: Yes, sir. I suppose you could put it that way.**

**BAER: Well so is mine.**

"Something is definitely going to happen. Gibbs's gut is ever wrong." Abby stage whispered.

**(Kate nods, equally as concerned, as she watches Baer walk off after the President. Air Force One takes off, once more.)**

***cut to NCIS Headquarters***

**ABBY: Ducky, I have tested everything. Mineral acids, organic acids, alkaloids, bacterial poisons...**

**DUCKY: You know, Abby, nature always proves to be a far more elusive and powerful killer than man.**

**(Ducky leaves. Abby looks thoughtful.)**

"It didn't seem right, though." Abby sighed.

***cut to Air Force One***

**(The new Football carrier is currently being served lunch. Gibbs watches him eat.)**

**KATE (to Gibbs): Expect him to drop?**

**GIBBS: (goes over to Kate) I see you're over the flu. (sits)**

**KATE: Twenty-four hour bug. Tim got over it yesterday. Tim is Major Kerry.**

**GIBBS: Yeah. I kinda figured that.**

Gibbs looked at the screen intensely. How much would this video reveal?

**KATE: (defensively) I met him for a drink yesterday. I told him we had to stop seeing each other. I mean, we hadn't been dating long. I mean, we knew each other on the detail for a couple of months before we started... dating. You know, when you're on the job 24/7, how else do you get to know someone?**

**GIBBS: Church.**

***cut to Abby's lab***

**(She's looking at natural toxins produced by animals, such as the Puffer fish. The test comes up negative. She sighs and goes back to try another.)**

***cut back to Air Force One***

**BAER: Annie.**

**ANNIE: Yes?**

**BAER: The President's ready to see you.**

**(Annie follows Baer out of the Press cabin, past where Gibbs and Kate are seated. Gibbs gets up to watch them curiously.)**

"Were you thinking about that goddamn movie again?" Fornell questioned.

"How did you know?" Gibbs tried the innocent voice again.

**GIBBS: Where they going?**

**K** **ATE: The President promised ten minutes to each member of the Press on board. Since we kicked them off at Wichita, he's playing catch up.**

**GIBBS: Three years before 9/11, Clancy wrote a book where a terrorist hijacked a commercial jetliner and crashed it into the Capital. (looks into Press cabin) In the Harrison Ford movie, the terrorists were reporters.**

Tony laughed moderately. Who knew Gibbs knew so much about the Harrison Ford movie?

**KATE: Gibbs, everyone on board has been vetted by us for years. Except you.**

**GIBBS: In the film, the terrorists got they're credentials from a Secret Service turnco** **at.**

**(Gibbs walks away. Kate sighs. A man from the Press cabin walks up beside her and watches Gibbs leave.)**

**MAN: Loosening up your dress code, Kate?**

**KATE: He's not one of us.**

**MAN: We all gonna get our fifteen minutes of fame?**

**KATE (shuffling him back to his seat): It's ten, Leonard, and the President's doing his best.**

"I think Gibbs is right." McGee declared. "Not that I ever doubted him, of course."

***cut to Abby's lab***

**(She's spinning a pair of scissors around her finger while she waits for her machine to beep. The test for Poison Arrow Frog is also negative.)**

***cut to street outside the bar where Kate broke up with Major Kerry***

**(The police have found a body. Tony drives up to investigate.)**

**T** **ONY (to cop): Agent DiNozzo, NCIS. What do you got?**

**COP: One dead Marine officer. No signs of trauma. (indicates wallet) Doesn't appear to be a robbery, there's still cash and credit cards in his wallet. (passes wallet to Tony) I've got two shooting already this morning. Since this guy's one of yours, I hoped you might take it.**

"Yeah, I mean, why wouldn't I?" Tony looked annoyed. "Give me all the dead bodies."

**(Tony flips open the wallet and sees the ID. It's Major Timothy Kerry.)**

**TONY: Yeah. We'll take him.**

***cut to Abby's lab***

**(She's finally gotten a positive test result. The toxin is identified as "taipan1". Abby jumps up and down in exaltation.)**

"That took forever..." Abby sighed.

"But it was worth it." Bishop finished for her.

***cut to Air Force One***

**(Gibbs is wandering around exploring the plane again.)**

**GIBBS: There's something different about this plane than Air Force One.**

**KATE: This is Air Force One.**

**GIBBS: You know what I mean.**

**(In the background, Agent Baer brings Annie back and calls for Leonard. It's his turn with the President now. He lingers putting on his sport coat as he leaves, overhearing Kate talk with Gibbs.)**

"Him!" Abby pointed at Leonard.

**KATE: There's some minor differences. 2900 is newer, has some minor updates.**

**GIBBS: Like what?**

**KATE: Rear loading hatch is bigger on the 2900. Extra lavatory forward. Locks are digital on 29, and keyed on this.**

"Cause the extra lavatory is important so that some people can have some privacy!" Abby continued.

"Sorry." Tony did not look very sorry. "The men's bathroom doesn't even have stalls, okay? I've seen practically every man at NCIS's baby-maker!"

"I so didn't need to know that." Abby face-palmed.

**(Man on intercom interrupts them.)**

**COMM: Special Agent Gibbs, you have a teleconference call in Comm.**

**GI** **BBS: (gets up to leave) Kate, I want to know every difference on this plane, no matter how small you think it is.**

**KATE (calling after him as he walks away): Please?**

**(Gibbs takes the teleconference call. It's Tony at MTAC.)**

**GIBBS: What's up?**

**TONY: Major Kerry is dead. D.C. cops found the body in his car on a street in Georgetown. Ducky and Abby'll update you.**

**(Tony switches the teleconference over to open up windows into Ducky's autopsy and Abby's lab so they can contribute as well.)**

**GIBBS: Another stroke, Duck?**

**DUCKY: I'm afraid so, Gibbs. But this time there are multiple embolic infarctions. The Major must have received a heavier dose than the Commander.**

**GIBBS: Dose of what, Abby?**

**ABBY: It's venom, from a coastal taipan. It's a highly toxic Aussie snake. Well this junk zaps the nervous system and it clots the blood. You convulse, and then you stroke.**

"Of course it is Australian." McGee sighed. "All the things that can kill you."

**DUCKY: The toxin is almost impossible to detect.**

**TONY: Well, the truth is, Abby would have detected it if I hadn't interrupted her while she was ALSing the uniform.**

**GIBBS: The venom was in the uniform?**

**ABBY: Yeah. I found traces of DMSO in the collars and the cuffs. I think it was mixed with the venom to make it absorbed through the skin.**

**TONY: Major Kerry was the intended target. When he came down with the flu, he didn't put his uniform on until yesterday.**

**GIBBS: How did the terrorist get the poison into the uniforms?**

**ABBY: Well, they both have tags from Dry Doc Cleaners on 19th Street.**

**GIBBS: DiNozzo, why are you sitting there on your ass? Get a team and go hit that dry cleaners.**

"Now you are the feisty one." Fornell grumbled.

**(Tony looks behind him at Director Morrow. The Director sits down in Tony's seat.)**

**DIRECTOR: I've passed that baton on to the FBI. This has all the earmarks of Al-Qaeda; unexpected, well planned, brilliantly executed. But to what end?**

**TONY: Wouldn't surprise me to hear Bin Laden on Al-Jazeera bragging about how he iced the President's Ball carriers.**

**DIRECTOR: I don't think that's what he wants to brag about.**

**GIBBS: Eh, neither do I.**

**(Gibbs signs off and leans back in his chair, thinking. Then he runs down the stairs to the new Football carrier, who leaps to his feet when he sees Gibbs.)**

**GIBBS: Where'd you get your uniform dry-cleaned?**

**MARINE: Base cleaner at Quantico, sir.**

**(Gibbs walks back down the aisle, encountering Kate on the way. She's got her laptop open in her arms.)**

**KATE: I've accessed everything I could on the differences.**

**GIBBS: We need to talk. (goes to open a door to an office)**

"You suspected her." Abby looked sad.

"She was close to both of them, and she was present both times." Gibbs explained.

**KATE: (stopping him) What are you doing? There's a campaign conference going on in there.**

**GIBBS: I need to talk to you in private.**

**KATE: Well, there's no other private meeting room. You could ask the President to give up his office, but it might be a little weird.**

**(Gibbs grabs her laptop and throws it down on a seat. While she protests, Gibbs pushes her into a bathroom and squeezes in with her.)**

**KATE: Hey!**

**GIBBS: (taking her weapon) Sit down.**

**KATE: What are you doing?!**

**GIBBS: (holding her own weapon pointed at her) Commander Trapp was poisoned. Australian snake venom. Hard to detect, mimics a natural death.**

**KATE: What? You think I did it?**

**GIBBS: Well, sweetpea, you were with him when he was poisoned.**

**KATE: Yeah, so was the President. You gonna accuse him?**

**GIBBS: No. He wasn't with Major Kerry yesterday.**

"That ought to be a shocker." Abby grimaced.

**KATE: Tim?**

**GIBBS: Yeah. Stroked, on a Georgetown street.**

**(Kate looks upset.)**

**GIBBS: You know, I bet it wasn't far from the bar where you two kissed and said bye-bye.**

**(Kate starts hitting him, crying, very upset. She calls him an "asshole", then buries her face in his shoulder while he holds her.)**

The agents looked quite upset.

"She did hit Gibbs." Tony attempted to lighten the mood half-heartedly.

**GIBBS (explaining): I gave it to you cold, wanted to see your reaction. Liars can't bail on cue. (hands her back her weapon while she gets ahold of herself) Come on.**

**KATE: (takes weapon back) You're still a b*st*rd.**

**(Gibbs doesn't argue.)**

"No reason to deny it." Gibbs shrugged.

**KATE: How were they poisoned?**

**GIBBS: Dry cleaner laced their uniforms with poison. Must be an Al-Qaeda sleeper.**

**KATE: Tim must have recommended his dry cleaners, he...**

**GIBBS: What?**

**KATE: (crying again) Yesterday, Tim told me that they had a drink and he gave Commander Trapp tips like that.**

**GIBBS: Well they've got to be after the President, but what would killing the Ball carrier give them?**

**KATE: Nothing. Another aide steps in.**

**GIBBS: (realising) And another plane. This plane. They forced the President to fly his backup.**

"Is that plane easier to infiltrate or something?" Abby raised an eyebrow.

**KATE: Security's exactly the same.**

**GIBBS: But the plane isn't. And I'll bet Security isn't either until the President's on board. Al-Qaeda has to have planted something on this plane.**

**KATE: It can't be a bomb, they would have detonated it by now.**

***cut to Press cabin***

**(A journalist starts going into convulsions and drops to the floor. Secret Service agents rush to his side.)**

They winced again.

**SECRET SERVICE: Medical emergency, Press cabin.**

**(Agent Baer leaves from escorting Leonard to race to the Press cabin. Leonard ambles along behind him. The same three medics from before come running.)**

**BAER: Captain, is this the same thing Trapp had?**

**DOCTOR: It appears to be.**

**FEMALE MEDIC: (checks respiration) He's not breathing.**

**DOCTOR: Start CPR.**

**BAER: Do something!**

**(Leonard, meanwhile, walks over to the cabinet Gibbs had remarked on before when comparing the plane with the movie. He has a key to unlock the cabinet. Inside are weapons, and he arms himself with an automatic.)**

"And Gibbs's gut in right once more." Tony cheered.

***cut to bathroom***

**GIBBS: You said the locks were different.**

**KATE: 29 has digital ones, this one has keys.**

**GIBBS: Armoury, the armoury. They have keys to the armoury. They copied the movie. They've vetted a reporter.**

**KATE: That would take years. (puts her earwig back in)**

**GIBBS: So did setting up 9/11.**

**(As they exit the washroom, Leonard sees them and ducks down side corridor before they can see him.)**

"Sneaky bastard." Abby grumbles.

**KATE (listening to comm. chatter): There's a medical emergency in the Press cabin.**

**GIBBS: It's a diversion. Cover the President.**

**(They split up. Gibbs back toward the Press cabin, Kate to the President. She draws her weapon as she approaches.)**

**KATE (to Ball carrier): Nobody gets past you.**

**(The Marine Football carrier plants himself in the middle of the aisle, a determined blockade. Leonard waits until Gibbs has passed by before going back out into the aisle. Gibbs makes his way to the armoury and grabs a handgun. Leonard approaches the Marine guarding the hall, who moves to intercept him.)**

**MARINE: Sir, stop right there. Stop right there, sir!**

**LEONARD: What's happened?**

**GIBBS: Freeze!**

The agents grinned. He was caught now.

**(Gibbs is now behind Leonard, pointing his gun at him. Leonard halts.)**

**GIBBS: Get your hands in the air.**

**LEONARD: (slowly turning around) Sure.**

**(Someone yelled for a doctor. As Leonard turns, he starts firing the automatic on an arc toward Gibbs. Gibbs does not flinch, but fires once into Leonard's chest. Leonard falls onto his butt, alive and no longer firing, but still with his finger on the trigger of the automatic. Gibbs shoots him twice more in the chest and head. Leonard keels over, dead. Kate and everyone else shows up to see what happened. Gibbs walks passed the body up to Kate and hands her his appropriated weapon with a smirk.)**

They watched the action intensely before signing in relief. They knew nothing bad would happen, but it never hurt to check.

***cut to Air Force One, once again parked on the tarmac surrounded by emergency vehicles.***

**BAER: I'm gonna be doing paperwork for a week.**

**GIBBS: Oh yeah, me too.**

**BAER: Agent Todd told me about her and Major Kerry when she tendered her resignation.**

**GIBBS: Are you accepting?**

**BAER: Of course, she broke the rules. (offers his hand) Well, thank you, Special Agent Gibbs.**

**GIBBS: (shakes hand) No sir, thank you.**

**(Gibbs deplanes smiling. Kate is then seen walking despondently away from the scene. Gibbs comes running up to her.)**

**GIBBS: I heard you quit, Agent Todd.**

**KATE: Happy news gets around fast. Yes, I resigned. It was the right thing to do.**

**GIBBS: Yup. Pull that crap at NCIS, I won't give you a chance to resign.**

The agents beamed.

"The start of an era...." Tony said dramatically.

**KATE: (surprised) Is that a job offer?**

**(Gibbs doesn't respond, but gets picked up by his mysterious redheaded lady friend with the convertible. Kate looks on in bewilderment.)**

***cut to Gibbs's basement***

Gibbs looked vaguely uncomfortable again. Vance shot him a look, daring him to argue with their previous agreement.

**(The TV flicks on in the middle of a news report. Agent Fornell is giving a press conference on site at Air Force One. )**

**FORNELL (on TV): Federal agents working in unison with the Secret Service were able to foil a terrorist attempt to assassinate the President while he was on board Air Force One. The body of the terrorist is being delivered to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, where FBI forensics experts will endeavour to identify him.**

**REPORTER (on TV): Was it Al-Qaeda?**

**F** **ORNELL: That's all we know at this time.**

 **(T** **he television sounds fade into the background as the camera focuses on Gibbs, once again diligently sanding his boat's frame to smoothness. )**

***END CREDITS***

"So, this would have been our killers first episode." Tony stated.

"Yes." Vance looked over the room. "Shall we continue?"

No one objected.


	3. Hung Out to Dry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The NCIS team watch 'Hung Out to Dry.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing! Sorry if anyone is out of character. I altered the script to suit the story.

**(Scene opens to a nighttime shot of a car parked under a big tree in the middle of a Park. Two teens are making-out in the backseat. The boy wants to take it further than the girl is willing.)**

Recognizing the occupants of the car, the agents grimaced.

"I hate men like that," Abby frowned at him.

They agreed.

"How did our guy get cameras in this car? He wouldn't know what was about to happen." Jimmy mentioned.

"An excellent question, Mr. Palmer, but unfortunately, one without an answer." Ducky frowned.

**GIRL: Jimmy. Jimmy, ugh. Stop! I said no! (pushes him away)**

**JIMMY: God, hey! I sat my sorry ass on a [torment??] bus for three hours to hook-up with you.**

**GIRL: If you only came to "hook-up", then you should have stayed in Charlottesville.**

The agents nodded.

"Is this the crime...or is it something else?" Ellie looks at the images on the screen.

"It's something else," Tony reassured, knowing what she meant.

**JIMMY: Oh, come on. You know I love you. (tries to kiss her again) Come here, come on...**

**GIRL: (holding him back) Jimmy. (he persists, she struggles to push him away) Stop it or I'll scream!**

**(While the girl keeps trying to make Jimmy stop, he isn't listening. Then, at the moment she threatens to scream, a pair of legs punch through the roof of the car and splatter the teens in blood. The girl makes good on her promise to scream - quite nicely, in fact. The camera then pans back from the car and we see that the body is a paratrooper, stuck halfway through the car's roof with his torso sticking out. The girl continues to scream.)**

The agents, even those who were there at the time, jumped in surprise.

"Parachute malfunction?" McGee guessed, grimacing.

"Something like that." Tony agreed.

***INTRO CREDITS***

"I know our killer is evil and all...." Abby considered this for a moment, "But I agree with Tony. This music is awesome."

The two bopped their heads to the tune.

**(Gibbs is in his basement working on his boat. The television plays a football game in the background. Tony appears at the top of the stairs.)**

"Why are you there?" Ellie inquired.

"Boss wasn't answering his phone." Tony shrugged. "There was a case."

She nodded.

**TONY: Don't you lock the door?**

**GIBBS: Nope.**

"That could be how our guy got in..." Vance mused. "Maybe you should start locking up."

Gibbs looked annoyed, but he didn't say anything.

"I lock my place up." Fornell commented. "And since Gibbs is coming with me, I'm making sure to buy more locks. It seems like this sniper has a particular interest in him. A tad bit more so than the others on his team."

"Yeah," Tony agreed. "Boss came first in the theme song. And the guy has Kate in this part, so we can assume that he will have Ziva too." his voice broke in sadness, thinking about his two former colleagues. "And McLate hasn't gotten a part in it yet."

"What about you, Tony? You've been here the entire time." Abby mentioned, becoming more worried about her family.

McGee responded first. "He did come second."

They sat in silence for a couple of moments.

"You think Ziva would be in danger too?" Tony's voice sounded slightly detached.

"Maybe. But they'd have to get to her first." Vance solemnly responded.

Abby then spoke up. "Do you think there would be a specific order he's going to attack us in? For example, the order of the theme song? Or the order of rank?"

"It's possible." Ducky explained. "Perhaps the killer will attack those they think are the most able to take them down first. But the theme song order seems more likely."

"Could it be that he put the theme song in order according to his favorites?" Palmer inquired.

The others nodded.

**TONY (walking down stairs): We got a call. Quantico. Marine got killed in an exercise.**

**GIBBS: How?**

**TONY: Night training jump. Guy's chute didn't open. (examines wooden frame which is obviously a boat) Is this a boat?**

"No, it's a tree house." Abby rolled her eyes.

**(Gibbs gives him a look, as if to say "what kind of stupid question is that?" then with a shake of the head, goes back to sanding his boat.)**

**GIBBS: His reserve chute failed to open?**

**TONY: I don't know. (looks at jar of orange liquid on tabletop, inside is a cell phone) Huh. I tried your cell. I tried your hard line, too. (we see wall-mounted phone has been ripped down)**

Fornell looked to Gibbs in amusement. "She annoyed you that much?"

Gibbs gave him a look as if to say "Obviously."

**GIBBS: Don't ask.**

**TONY: You know, my dad gave me a power-sander for my birthday. I don't really power-sand much. You're welcome to it.**

"Since when has Gibbs used power tools?" McGee inquired.

Tony blushed slightly.

"Or electronics in general?" he pressed.

Now, it was Gibbs's turn to raise his eyebrow.

"I didn't mean that you couldn't use them, boss." the agent quickly explained. "It's just that you prefer-"

"All right, McGee." Gibbs cut him off.

**GIBBS: Except for that bare bulb there and the cord going to that idiot box, you see a power cord around here anywhere?**

**(Tony takes a quick look around just to check, then shrugs. He stokes a hand slowly along the smoothed surface Gibbs was working on, admiring it.)**

**TONY: (appreciatively) You use hand tools, huh?**

"Brilliant observation, Tony." Abby applauded sarcastically.

"Thank you," the senior field agent stood up and dramatically bowed.

**GIBBS: I use my hands. You call Ducky?**

"You use your hands?" Abby asked cheekily.

Gibbs gave her a glance.

"Yes. Yes he does." Fornell answered for him.

The others' eyes widened in an alarmed state. Their operation was making quick progress.

**TONY: Not yet.**

**GIBBS (walking up stairs): Give me your cell. (holds out a hand)**

**(Tony tosses Gibbs his cell phone, then turns around to look at the broken telephone Gibbs ripped down. Gibbs exits the basement.)**

"Why didn't you just turn it off or something? Unplug it?" McGee inquired.

Gibbs glared at him. "Why do you think?" He was referring to his aggressive nature. It was easier to take his anger out on objects instead of just unplugging them.

The agents winced. Their boss was not in a very good mood at the moment. Must be the lack of caffeine.

**GIBBS (calling back from upstairs): Coming, DiNozzo?**

**TONY: (quietly) He's a weirdo. (louder) Yeah. I got the li- (the lights shut off, plunging the basement into pitchblack.) Light.**

"I'm a what?" Gibbs raised an eyebrow.

"I meant that in a good way!"

This did not stop the incoming head slap.

***cut to Park***

**(Big klieg lights turn on, illuminating the area around the car with the paratrooper's body still in it. A military jeep and the NCIS mobile response uni** **t are already on scene. A marine walks with Gibbs and Tony to the car.)**

**TONY: He impaled an SUV?**

"Very coincidental." Ducky looked deep in thought. "That the paratrooper fell right where the car just happened to be parked."

"It's a strange world, Dr. Mallard." Jimmy shrugged.

"Yes it is, Mr. Palmer."

**MARINE: Like he was laser-guided, sir.**

**GIBBS: Where are the other jumpers?**

**MARINE (indicating a group of Marines off to the side): Over there, sir. They landed in the drop zone 400 meters north of the road.**

**GIBBS: Just one stick?**

**MARINE: Yes, sir. I guess the Jump Master held the others back when the victim's chute didn't open.**

"Wise." Ellie winced.

**GIBBS: Did you secure the paraloft and the aircraft?**

**MARINE: Yes, sir. I also have the Marines who didn't make the jump under guard at the hanger.**

**GIBBS: Yeah, put them with the others. Just keep 'em all separated.**

**MARINE: Yes, sir.**

**GIRL (overheard from offscreen): Oh my god.**

"That poor girl." Bishop winced once more.

"I know, right?" Abby agreed. "First, she was with a guy who wanted to take it farther than she was willing, and second, a body crashed through the roof of the SUV she was in."

Tony sighed. "She did take the SUV without permission from her father."

"Young people do dumb things sometimes. Sometimes older people do too." the forensic scientist shrugged. "Doesn't mean she deserved to be traumatized."

**GIBBS: These the witnesses? (walks over)**

**MARINE: Yes, sir.**

**GIRL (talking to medic, distraught): My dad's gonna kill me. He's on duty, and he doesn't know that I took his SUV.**

"I'm sure he waited far a bit to lecture her...." Jimmy sounded sure of himself.

"That is probably correct, Mr. Palmer." Ducky agreed. "Most fathers know that right then would not be the best time for a lecture."

**GIBBS (to girl): Your dad's a Marine?**

**GIRL: Yes, sir.**

**MARINE: Master Sergeant Tom Schaefer, sir. He's a TI at Quantico.**

**TONY (at boy, lurking behind them): Your dad a Marine, too?**

"You trying to be creepy, lurker?" McGee asked, amused at his behavior.

"Creepy? Not necessarily, but it would be a bonus. Intimidating? Yes." Tony confidently grinned at him.

**JIMMY: No way. (smok** **es a cigarette)**

**GIBBS: (solicitously) You cold, Sarah?**

**SARAH: A little.**

**(Gibbs goes over to the obnoxious boy and rips his jacket right off him. The boy barely protests, just keeps smoking.)**

"What a gentleman," Abby rolled his eyes at the boy.

**GIBBS: Thanks. (gives jacket to girl) Here you go.**

**S** **ARAH: (smiles gratefully) Thank you.**

**GIBBS: Special Agent Gibbs, Special Agent DiNozzo. NCIS. Want to tell us what happened?**

**SARAH (looking at boy): We were... parked, and...**

**JIMMY (interrupting): We were hanging-out. Listening to Dashboard Confessional.**

"He trying to cover his tracks?" Fornell did not look amused.

Gibbs gave him a look. "Obviously."

"Most people don't want the law enforcement to know that they wanted to take advantage of someone." Vance added on.

**GIBBS: What?**

**TONY: Emo.**

**GIBBS: (baffled) Emo?**

"Get with the times, Jethro." Fornell's hand met his forehead.

"I don't have to, Tobias. I'm doing perfectly fine without it."

**TONY: Emotional music. (whispering) Radio, Gibbs.**

**GIBBS: Okay, so you were listening to music and...?**

**SARAH: He smashed through the roof.**

**JIMMY: Wham, pow, blood everywhere.**

"He doesn't seem to be taking this very seriously." McGee commented.

Tony nodded. "He wasn't the most helpful witness we've ever had."

"That much is obvious."

"That it is, McGoo."

**SARAH: And I screamed, and we ran out for help.**

**MARINE: I met them about a klick down the road on our way to the scene.**

"The ran for one kilometer without finding any help?" Ellie inquired.

"They weren't exactly in New York City, Bishop." Tony grinned cheerfully. "Although, I don't think it would have stopped them from doing it in the city."

**S** **ARAH: I felt bad for leaving him there.**

**GIBBS: He was alive?**

**SARAH: (nods) I heard him groan.**

"So, he died alone." Bishop looked sad. "I'm guessing there was no reception."

"That's probably accurate." McGee agreed.

**JIMMY: (defensively) It was a death rattle.**

**TONY (to boy): You ever hear a death rattle?**

**JIMMY: I was using it as a trope.**

"Not the best idea during an interview." Tony shook his head. "Most things are taken literally."

**GIBBS: A what?**

**JIMMY: A trope. A figurative use of (waves hands) expression.**

**GIBBS: Yeah. (to Marine) Call her dad, have him pick her up.**

**JIMMY: (eagerly) Does that mean I get to go?**

"Since he was that obnoxious, I would have kept him in spite." Fornell looked serious.

**GIBBS: Not until after Master Sergeant Schaefer gets here. I'm sure he's gonna have a "trope" or two for ya.**

"I agree." Gibbs had waited for this line to happen before he continued.

"I'm sure Master Sergeant Schaefer beat his sorry ass into an early grave." Tony looked amused.

**(Gibbs walks away. The boy looks worried, cigarette forgotten in his hand. Gibbs, Tony, and the Marine walk to the SUV with the paratrooper stuck in it. Ducky has set up a ladder beside the vehicle so he could climb to the roof to examine the body.)**

**GIBBS: Ducky's here.**

**TONY: Yeah, and on a ladder. I'll get the monopod.**

**DUCKY: Last time I was up this high I was hanging a pinata at my nephew's birthday party.**

"You have a nephew?" Ellie looked surprised. "I thought your brother-"

"Sometimes," Ducky explained quickly. "The children of my close friends are considered my family."

The agents accepted this explanation.

**GIBBS: What do we got, Duck?**

**DUCKY (using a flashlight): Oh, abrasions. (looks up) The tree must have slowed him a bit. Purple discolouration - neck's broken, I'd say. Hardly surprising given the rapid descent followed by the equally rapid deceleration.**

**GIBBS: Witnesses over there said he groaned after he decelerated?**

"I can't imagine being in that much pain, hearing people, and then dying alone." McGee winced.

"Well, McSympathetic," Tony wrapped his arm around his friend's shoulders. "I'll hold your hand while you die if you want me too."

"Thanks, Tony." McGee deadpanned.

**DUCKY: It's possible. I won't know until I do the autopsy.**

**(Gibbs, having put on gloves, pulls out his own flashlight and starts examining the parachute draped over the back of the SUV.)**

**GIBBS: Looks like a number of his shroud lines failed. Enough of those go, chute doesn't catch air. It tootsie-rolls; puts you down like a roman candle.**

**DUCKY: They cut?**

**GIBBS: Nah, they look worn. (aims flashlight up) Still got his reserve chute on. Why didn't he pull it?**

"Did he forget it was there?" Ellie was trying to find an answer.

"No," Tony said dryly. "I'm sure that a Marine whose parachute failed would naturally forget something as important as his reserve."

"Then, what happened?"

Vance interrupted. "It will eventually be explained, Agent Bishop. Please remember that our killer is still out there, and we have to get this over with as quickly as possible."

**TONY (interrupting): Hey! Look who I found.**

**(Tony is escorting Agent Kate Todd onto the scene. Kate is dressed in a business suit with a skirt and high heels.)**

"How is she going to do this with heels on?" McGee inquired.

"Jethro always comes to crime scene prepared in case some probationary agent does something like that." Fornell sounded like he knew the drill. "I'm sure he has spare shoes for her that are exactly her size."

Tony winced. "Sounds kind of creepy when you put it like that."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry, boss. I know you know that I didn't mean offense or anything-"

"Relax, DiNozzo."

"Yes, boss."

**TONY: MPs weren't gonna let her passed.**

**KATE: I got my Sig and badge, but HQ didn't issue my photo ID. (sees body) God, is this for real?**

"Unfortunately, yes." Ellie sighed.

Tony whispered. "You think she realizes she's talking to a video?"

McGee shook his head.

**DUCKY: Unfortunately, my dear, it is.**

**GIBBS: Put 'em on. (hands her a pair of gloves)**

**DUCKY: Ah, your first crime scene with us, Caitlin.**

"What about the last part?" Palmer inquired, looking slightly confused.

"She wasn't with us then. She was with us, but not with us. You get me, Autopsy Gremlin?" Tony explained.

"No,"

"She wasn't part of NCIS then."

**KATE: What about Air Force One?**

**DUCKY: Doesn't count, you were in the Secret Service. Hey, Tony, take a team photo for posterity.**

**GIBBS: Forget posterity. Sun's gonna be up soon. (hands Kate a box) Welcome to NCIS.**

"And here comes the supplies Kate forgot." Tony snapped his fingers. "Right on time, boss."

**KATE (pulling a boot out of the box): How'd you know my size?**

**GIBBS: (smirks and puts an NCIS cap on her head) Put 'em on. Can't work a field in high heels.**

"I bet I could if I tried." Tony murmured mutinously.

Fornell laughed, having heard it. "Next time NCIS and FBI share jurisdiction. I want to see it."

Gibbs having also heard it, was giving his senior field agent a glare.

**TONY: (cheekily) Depends on the kind of work you're doing.**

**KATE: Your mind, DiNozzo, runs the gamut from X to XXX.**

**TONY: Yeah.**

**GIBBS: Photos, Tony!**

**TONY: (sighing) Yeah. (lifts camera mounted on monopod up to roof to take pictures of body) Ducky? Why would Gibbs rip his hard line out and dunk his cell phone into a jar of paint thinner?**

"DiNozzo." Gibbs looked frustrated.

"I was just concerned, boss."

He wanted to tell him to mind his own business, but he stopped after looking at the look Ducky was giving him.

**DUCKY: Oh, dear.**

**TONY: What?**

**DUCKY: I should have realised the time of year. (climbs down and into car) It's his anniversary.**

"Which one?" Ellie whispered to McGee

"I don't know." he answered. "I wasn't there, but it was probably the last one."

**TONY: Which marriage?**

**DUCKY: Why, the last one of course. Isn't it always?**

"See?" the tech wiz smiled.

"You find something funny, McGee?" Gibbs raised an eyebrow.

"No, not at all boss." McGee responded quickly.

**(Tony takes some pictures around the outside of the SUV while Ducky examines the body's legs.)**

**TONY (popping into the car beside Ducky): Ducky, I'm not following.**

**DUCKY: Every year, ex-wife number three gets drunk on their anniversary and calls him. Repeatedly.**

"That must be lovely." Abby grimaced.

"It's disturbing how much this guy knows about our private lives. He could use weaknesses against us." Tony commented.

Vance nodded. "We'll have to see if there are any that he or she doesn't already know, and we'll have to protect the ones that they do. Keep an eye on each other, and make sure everyone is safe. Understand?"

"Yes, Leon." Gibbs looked towards the television as everyone else voiced their agreement.

**TONY: Why doesn't he, uh, change his number?**

"Do I look like I know how to do electronic mumbo-jumbo?" Gibbs questioned.

"No, boss." Tony was pleased, however. He finally had an answer to his question, and it made logical sense.

**DUCKY: I have no idea. In case you haven't noticed, Gibbs is a man of more questions than answers.**

"This killer could know these answers, Jethro." Ducky warned. "Who knows what he would do with them." it was obvious he was referring to the Hernandez case. "If he figures out that we are close to finding him, he may release these answers and stall his arrest."

**(They both chuckle. Gibbs and Kate return, Kate wearing the boots and her hair tucked under the cap. Tony snaps a picture of her.)**

**KATE: (sarcastically) Thanks, DiNozzo.**

**TONY (grinning): Hey, you could be the NCIS poster-girl in that outfit.**

***cut to Quantico airplane hanger***

**(The tail end of the aircraft is sticking out of the open hanger doors. Lined up under it are each of the Marines involved in the jump. Each one has their parachute sitting beside them. Gibbs, Tony, and Kate approach. A disgruntled Marine meets them.)**

**MARINE: You JAG or NCIS?**

**GIBBS: Do I look like a lawyer?**

"No." Tony shook his head. "Good thing, too."

**MARINE: Word's all over the base by now. My men can't even call their families and let them know they're not the one who died.**

**GIBBS: Was Sergeant Fuentes married?**

**MARINE: He has a wife and son.**

The occupants of the room winced.

"I wonder how they are doing...." Tony thought out loud.

"If this thing is going to be showing everything, how many people would have to be put under protection?" McGee inquired. "The sniper got into that car already."

Vance replied quickly. "We would have to see if the sniper is interested in them. He or she might not care, but they also might not want to leave any loose ends."

**GIBBS: Notification detail should be there to talk to her by now. Word will get out he was killed.**

**MARINE: Sergeant Fuentes was under my command. I'd like to see her.**

**GIBBS: After we finish questioning you and your men.**

Gibbs looked disgruntled, and Fornell glanced at him. He knew that look: something was going to happen in the next few moments that really irritated him.

**MARINE: How long is that gonna take?**

**GIBBS: I don't know.**

**MARINE: These men have another jump at 21: 00.**

"They are jumping again?" Ellie looked horrified. "There could be another bad parachute!"

"That Marine was really stubborn." Tony explained. "He wanted his training to be as similar to a wartime situation as possible."

**KATE: They're jumping again tonight?**

**MARINE: We don't stop for casualties in war, miss. Neither do we in training.**

**GIBBS: Not true, Captain. They don't jump off a lower bunk until we find out what happened.**

"What's the use of getting recruits and trainees if you kill them all before they go overseas?" Fornell asked bitterly.

**CAPTAIN: (insultingly) I don't take orders from NCIS cops.**

**GIBBS: Special Agents. And you'll follow this order.**

**CAPTAIN: (belligerently) Or what, Special Agent?**

**(Gibbs pulls out his cell phone and hits speed dial.)**

**CAPTAIN: I don't take orders from your boss either.**

**GIBBS: I'm not calling my boss; I'm calling yours. Commandant Mae? Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS.**

"You are playing him..." Ducky smirked.

"It sometimes is the only way to get what you want and need." Gibbs shrugged. 

**(The Captain walks away. Gibbs waits until he's gone, then closes the phone.)**

**TONY: (knowingly) I don't have a Commandant of the Marine Corps on my speed dial.**

**GIBBS: Captain didn't know that. (they walk over to the plane) Alright DiNozzo, shoot and sketch. Focus on the static lines, Kate and I'll start the interrogation.**

**TONY (gets into plane): Jumping's gotta be so cool.**

"Jumping's so cool..." Tony had a dreamy look in his eyes. "When you have a parachute, that is."

"A working one." Abby added.

**GIBBS: Hey! You wanna play paratrooper, pay a $180. Take a class, like all those other weekend warriors.**

**TONY (leaning round the side of the plane to call after Gibbs): (sarcastically) Yeah, I have so many weekends free!**

**(Gibbs and Kate walk back into the hanger. Tony stands on the rear hatch of the plane, hands in his pockets, smirking. Inside the hanger, Gibbs and Kate are interrogating the other Marine jumpers.)**

**GIBBS: Did Fuentes lead your stick?**

**MARINE: Yes, sir. I was number two, Ramsey was three, Brinkman four.**

***cut to flashback***

**(The paratroopers are on board the plane, preparing to jump. The Captain is issuing orders, the men are lined up in formation.)**

"How did our guy get that video?" Abby looked shocked. "They couldn't have known that something was going to go wrong there, unless he was working with criminals in the past..."

The rest of the room looked quite disturbed.

"They'd have to have access to many government divisions as well, or they must at least have good connections." Ellie continued.

"Which would make our job so much easier," Tony added the sarcasm.

**CAPTAIN: First stick, you're up! Fuentes, look sharp! Dafelmair, Ramsey, Brinkman. Keep it tight!**

**MARINES (all together): Aye, sir!**

**CAPTAIN: Stand by. (pauses in front of open hatch) Go! (Fuentes jumps) Go! (Dafelmair jumps) Go! (Ramsey jumps)**

Everyone in the room who knew who the criminal in this case was looked at the screen sourly.

**RAMSEY (in voice over): After my shoot deployed, I looked around. I saw Brinkman's chute open above me, but when I looked down I only saw one canopy below.**

***end flashback***

**RAMSEY: I didn't know whether it was Paul or Thumper.**

**KATE: Thumper?**

**RAMSEY: That's what we called Fuentes, ma'am.**

**BRINKMAN: Sounds crazy now, but he was the squad's good-luck guy, ma'am.**

"His 'good luck' certainly didn't last when he needed it the most." Ducky commented.

"He did need it a lot in combat, Dr. Mallard." Jimmy mentioned.

Ducky nodded. "Yes, but he didn't expect to be attacked at home."

**RAMSEY: He was a walking rabbit's foot.**

**KATE: (nods) Oh.**

**RAMSEY: Yes, ma'am. He always seemed to dodge the bullets. We could tell you a million stories.**

**GIBBS: Why don't you tell us just one.**

**RAMSEY: Well, sir, Larry bought a new bike last week. Car ran a red light, he went over it and into a plate glass window.**

**DAFELMAIR: Dinged his collarbone a little. Other than that, not a scratch.**

**GIBBS: Dinged it a little?**

**DAFELMAIR: Day or two, he was fine, sir.**

"That's got to be unlikely." McGee mentioned.

"Indeed," Ducky nodded. "Either he was incredibly lucky or that isn't quite the truth."

**GIBBS: Hmm... who reached him first?**

**DAFELMAIR: I did, sir. I saw him roman candle short of the field. Soon as I got out of my harness, I took off to find him.**

"First to reach him...." Ellie raised an eyebrow and started thinking about this case. Even though it was already solved, she didn't know who the killer was, so it would be a good exercise to sharpen her skills.

**GIBBS (to Ramsey and Brinkman): You two?**

**BRINKMAN: I hung up in a tree. Dave gave me a hand. Saw Paul yelling, we joined him.**

**RAMSEY: Can't believe we let Thumper die. It's like a bad movie.**

**GIBBS: Was he dead when you reached him, Corporal Dafelmair?**

**DAFELMAIR: Yes, sir. Died on impact, sir. I'm sure... well, at least I hope he did.**

**KATE: Why didn't he pull his reserve?**

**BRINKMAN: Jumping from 1300ft, your main fails? You have three, maybe four seconds to react, ma'am.**

"Shouldn't that be enough time?" McGee inquired.

"Yes, it should. Especially for a Marine." Ellie mentioned.

Gibbs looked from McGee to Ellie and back again, but no one but Fornell knew what he was feeling.

Pride, it was. Fornell smirked; Gibbs was very proud of all his agents.

**GIBBS: Okay. Each of you need to prepare a statement detailing what you saw.**

**MARINES (together): Yes, sir!**

**(The Marines go to pick up their parachutes, but Gibbs stops them.)**

**GIBBS: Whoa! Leave 'em. Your gear is ours now.**

"I bet that made them happy." Jimmy sighed.

"Well, Autopsy Gremlin..." Tony looked into the distance. "It was their stuff, so I don't think they appreciated us going through it."

**(The Marines share a look, then leave Gibbs and Kate alone. They watch them go.)**

**GIBBS: What'd you get out of that?**

**KATE: He didn't have time to pop his reserve.**

The agents in the room smirked. It was time for one of Gibbs's famous tests; they were random. One could never know when the master of the squadroom would approach them and start quizzing them on a current case.

"He does it to keep us lowlifes on our feet." Tony hissed to Ellie.

Ellie nodded, thoroughly amused by his commentary.

**GIBBS: Why not?**

**KATE: (looks at Gibbs) Obviously his reaction time was too slow.**

**GIBBS (turning to walk out of the hanger): That's...**

**KATE: Dinged collarbone.**

**GIBBS: Injured clavicle hurts like hell. Takes more than a couple of days to heal.**

Ellie and McGee glanced at each other, both of them trying to figure out the case.

"It's odd that Dafelmair was the first to reach him and the one who lied." Ellie whispered so that only McGee could hear her words.

"Still would be a good idea to keep a clear head and investigate the others thoroughly before we jump to conclusions." McGee hissed.

"Jump?" Bishop raised an eyebrow at the poor wording.

The tech wiz sighed. "You get what I mean."

"That, I do."

**KATE: You think Corporal Dafelmair was lying?**

**GIBBS: He was if he knew that Thumper was taking painkillers so he could jump.**

**KATE: That's stupid.**

**GIBBS: No. That's a Marine.**

"Both." Fornell disagreed. "Common for a Marine yet still stupid. Reminds me of someone." he nodded his head, smirking.

"And who does that remind you of?" Gibbs raised an eyebrow.

"Just a former Marine who can't be bothered to keep any actual food in his house because he is too obsessed with his job and boats." the FBI agent sighed. "It's a shame I can't remember his name, but I know he is an important part of my life."

"He better be." the former Marine who can't be bothered to keep any actual food in his house because he is too obsessed with his job and boats rolled his eyes.

The other agents in the room looked at each other and nodded. This interaction, though shocking to them, was vital for their operation.

Ducky and Vance looked at each other, amused by both the older agents and the younger ones.

***cut to Autopsy***

**(Dr. Mallard is outlining the victim's various injuries to Gibbs and Kate, using the x-rays as visuals as he goes.)**

The agents in the room winced, reminded of the large amount of injuries Thumper had sustained.

**DUCKY: Our victim sustained a broken neck, crushed vertebrae, multiple leg fractures, shattered pelvis...**

**GIBBS: What about his clavicle?**

**DUCKY: With all the massive skeletal damage, you're curious about his clavicle?**

"Of course he is. Isn't everyone interested in clavicles?" Tony grinned. He looked at his boss, but there was no sign of a head slap coming his way. He continued to grin.

**GIBBS: Humour me.**

**DUCKY: (pulls down the specific x-ray for a closer look) Huh, how did you know? There's a fine hairline fracture on the left clavicle, which he-**

**KATE: Incurred recently, but not last night.**

**DUCKY: No, it's begun to mend. (turns to look at Gibbs and Kate) You two are beginning to scare me.**

**GIBBS: Ducky, would that fracture pain him much?**

**DUCKY: Oh, nothing too severe. But of course, the shock of a parachute opening would have hurt like blazes. (points at x-ray) How did you know?**

"Then why would he do it?" Ellie inquired quietly.

"Again, Marine." McGee responded.

**GIBBS: The girl in the SUV said she heard him moan. Was he alive after impact?**

**DUCKY: (nods) Briefly.**

**(Ducky goes over to the body. Kate moves to follow, but Ducky stops her.)**

**DUCKY: Ah, not too close, Caitlin. I'll put it on the monitor. (to Gibbs) He most certainly would have died of massive trauma, but the technical cause of death was severing of the femoral artery.**

**(Ducky hauls down a camera probe and feeds the image of the wound unto the big screen monitor mounted on the wall while he explains. Kate looks queasy at the graphic image.)**

**DUCKY: Yes. Our young Marine... bled to death.**

"I expected he would have snapped his neck." McGee commented.

"Yes," Ducky nodded. "While that could have been suspected, it didn't happen. His bones were destroyed, but nothing that would have killed him, like his neck, was broken. Leaving bleeding out as a possible cause of death."

***cut to Abby's lab***

**(Abby is hanging a picture on her wall when Tony walks in.)**

**TONY: What happened to the sad end to a Drain-O drinker?**

The agents looked amused. Abby certainly did like her art in a way that people normally wouldn't.

"I'm thinking of doing another one." Abby grinned. "How about a stab wound to the ribcage?"

"I think that would look lovely, Abigail." Ducky nodded to the forensic scientist.

**ABBY: I did a new one. Art can't stand still, Tony. (admires her new wall art)**

**TONY: (frowns) It was my favourite. So, what's the new one?**

**ABBY: Self-inflicted gunshot wound to the abdomen.**

**TONY: (hamishly) Of course!**

**ABBY: I'm gonna call it "Blast from the Future". I figure with my shotgun shattered backbone (points at other picture on opposite wall) I've got like a Chagall feeling going on.**

**TONY: Ah, in a Manson Family way.**

**ABBY: Yeah!**

The agents in the room smiled at her enthusiasm.

**(Gibbs and Kate enter.)**

**GIBBS: Abby, you have my tox screen results?**

**ABBY: Yup, right over here. (goes to her computer) The victim tested positive for percocet and vicodin. Double your pleasure.**

**TONY: Double your fun.**

**GIBBS: What kind of levels?**

**ABBY: 0.17. He was slow juiced, like a koala bear. My guess is that he popped right before he dropped.**

"Unfortunately, that didn't help him." McGee whispered.

**GIBBS: The Marines we questioned in his string probably knew.**

**KATE: Why didn't they tell us?**

"They wouldn't want to rat him out. Technically, he shouldn't have been jumping." Fornell answered that Kate on the screen. "You ever try anything like that?"

"Try? No. It's called doing it. Many, many times." Gibbs grimaced at the memories.

"Marines." the FBI agent looked to Ducky.

**ABBY: Semper Fi. You rat, you fry.**

**(** **Gibbs gives Abby a look. She sobers.)**

**ABBY: Sorry.**

**GIBBS: Was his reserve chute okay?**

**ABBY: Yeah, it was perfect. All he had to do was pop it.**

**KATE: Well he might have, if his reflexes weren't slowed by opioids.**

**TONY: Opioids?**

**KATE: General term for opiates and synthetic analgesics.**

"Weren't you a cop in Baltimore?" McGee taunted.

"Well, McInsult, that doesn't mean I know or remember everything. There were a lot of cops there with different expertise." Tony corrected suavely.

**ABBY: Go Kate! (they bump fists)**

**GIBBS (to Tony): You sure you were a Baltimore cop?**

**(Tony makes a face. Abby smirks.)**

**KATE: Okay, he was too juiced to pop his reserve.**

**GIBBS: Maybe. Maybe not. Pump adrenalin when you jump. Your main chute doesn't open, it would really kick in to high gear.**

"Then, was something wrong with the parachute instead?" Ellie inquired.

"It would be easier to let you see what happens." Vance reminded the occupants of the room.

After a moment of hesitation, McGee voiced his thoughts. "It is really creepy how this guy has cameras everywhere. Like, the lab, the squadroom, the base, Gibbs's house, a random person's car...."

"And probably a lot of other places where they definitely shouldn't have been able to get footage of." Tony was oddly compassionate. "Don't worry about it; I'm getting shivers too."

**KATE: Gibbs, if he had the reflexes to use it, why didn't he?**

**GIBBS: I don't know. (to Abby) What you'd find from the shroud lines of his main chute?**

**(Abby walks into her other lab area. Everyone follows.)**

**ABBY: Fibre disintegration, but not from textile fatigue. It's fluorescing as some sort of cleaning agent. (runs a UV light over the broken lines) But that didn't cause this kind of damage.**

**KATE (leaning down): Edges look melted.**

**ABBY: I haven't tagged it yet, but it was definitely an acid that shredded the lines holding three hundred pounds of jumping Marine.**

"How did the acid get there?" Ellie inquired quietly.

"It is likely that someone put it there." McGee commented at the same volume. "Acid like that doesn't normally appear naturally on shroud lines."

**GIBBS: How long to find the acid and check out the rest of those chutes?**

**ABBY: Well I'm flying solo, so at least a day.**

**GIBBS: Would it go faster if you had an assistant?**

**ABBY: Oh, definitely.**

"I thought you didn't like having assistants." McGee looked amused.

"Well, it depends on how comfortable I am with the person, I guess. Plus, the majority of the assistants given to me are somehow involved in the crime itself." Abby shrugged. "I also had a pretty good idea on who this assistant would be." she grinned. "Still hate assistants though. They are either total jerks or suck-ups."

**GIBBS: Okay (to Kate) You got the job.**

**KATE: I get to do forensics?**

**GIBBS (leaving with Tony): No, you get to schlepp for Abby. She gets to do forensics.**

**(Abby hands Kate a lab coat. They smile happily at each other.)**

"See? Good relationship here between my assistant and I." Abby pointed out. "I already knew her, and I liked her."

***cut to [empty elevator shaft??] next to paraloft***

**(A parachute is hanging suspended down the shaft. Tony stands below it taking pictures. Gibbs is inside talking with Cpl. Dafelmair. The Corporal is preparing a table for of chutes.)**

"Dafelmair also prepares the parachutes." Ellie noted to McGee.

"This guy is getting more and more suspicious." the tech wiz responded.

They both had a pretty good idea of who the prime suspect was.

**GIBBS: Why didn't you tell us you were a rigger, Corporal?**

**DAFELMAIR: Thought you knew, sir.**

**GIBBS: Did you? (grimaces) What's next?**

**DAFELMAIR: Sign the log and stick it in the chute pocket.**

**(Dafelmair signs the log. Gibbs picks it up and compares it to the one from Sergeant Fuentes' chute.)**

**GIBBS: Same signature.**

"Even more suspicious." McGee grimaced.

**DAFELMAIR: That was the log from Thumper's chute, wasn't it, sir?**

**GIBBS: Yup, you packed it.**

**(Gibbs starts to walk away. Dafelmair anxiously races after him. Tony follows behind them.)**

**DAFELMAIR: Sir, I didn't know he'd get one that I packed. The chutes are handed out randomly, even when we jump.**

"Then, how did he know that he wouldn't end up with the faulty parachute?" Ellie looked perplexed.

"He could have changed it out afterwards." McGee proposed.

"Wouldn't Thumper find that suspicious?" Bishop raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe he had his back turned or something."

"That is still unlikely."

**GIBBS: Riggers usually go on jumps?**

**DAFELMAIR: On training runs, yes sir.**

**TONY: How many riggers jumped last night?**

**DAFELMAIR: Uh, Corporal Ramsey, Brinkman, and Thumper, of course. He was senior rigger.**

"They all just happened to leave that information out." Fornell sighed. "Always assuming that we know everything."

Gibbs nodded.

**GIBBS: Figured we knew that too?**

**DAFELMAIR: Sir, we weren't trying to hide anything.**

**GIBBS: (exasperated) Oh, like hell you weren't, Corporal!**

**TONY: You all knew Thumper was using painkillers for that dinged collarbone. (pulls the tag on a chute, popping it) He died because he was too juiced to pull his reserve.**

"But how did they know it would get to him?" Ellie was thinking hard over this topic. She sighed.

"I think she needs some chips or something to figure this out." McGee looked amused.

Gibbs winced at the reminder that he couldn't have any coffee. Not only did Vance recently make a rule that they couldn't bring food or drink into MTAC, but the coffee machine was broken this morning. Which was absolutely fantastic.

Fornell noticed that Gibbs was thinking about coffee again and just sighed. He certainly did have a caffeine addiction.

**DAFELMAIR: Sir, there was not way for anyone to sabotage a chute and count on it getting to a specific jumper.**

**GIBBS: Were all the chutes packed here?**

**DAFELMAIR: Yes, we prepped them at 09: 00. Put them on the trucks for the jump at 18: 00.**

**GIBBS: They were here for nine hours unattended?**

**DAFELMAIR: Under lock and key, sir.**

**GIBBS: Who's got the key?**

**DAFELMAIR: Captain Faul and Thumper, as senior rigger, both have keys.**

Ellie and McGee glanced at each other, both of them absorbing the new information.

"I still think Dafelmair is suspicious. If Thumper had done it, it would be a very weird suicide." McGee whispered.

"What about Captain Faul?" Ellie inquired.

"Well, this sniper seems to be focusing on the team and to some extent the criminal, yes? Faul hasn't been on too much." the tech wiz explained his reasoning.

**(Gibbs and Tony share a look. Gibbs open up a folder containing a police report.)**

**GIBBS: You had a criminal record before entering the Corps, Corporal.**

**DAFELMAIR: Made a few mistakes, sir.**

**GIBBS: Shoplifting. Drug possession.**

**DAFELMAIR: It was a long time ago, sir.**

**TONY: Three years. Not so long.**

**DAFELMAIR: Look, sir, you have my file. You know the judge gave me a choice. Prison or the Service. The Corps gave me a second chance, sir. And I would never do anything to hurt it or one of my brother Marines. Never, sir.**

"I still think he did it." McGee whispered before speaking loudly. "How many interrogations or questionings do you guys think this guy recorded?"

Vance grimaced at the reminder. "Probably a lot, Agent McGee. I just hope the public doesn't see a lot of this. It was cause a lot of hysteria, and who knows if this guy recorded any conversations with lawyers. We don't need that lawsuit."

The agents in the room shuddered at the idea.

***cut to Abby's lab***

**(Kate is helping Abby to prepare specimens of the shroud lines so she can analyze the acid.)**

**ABBY: (grinning) Carl Sagan time. (computer beeps) Sulfuric acid! That would chew the shine off a trailer hitch.**

**(Kate looks excited and impressed, grins at Abby.)**

**KATE: How'd you get into this?**

**ABBY: Filled out an application.**

**KATE: I mean, forensics.**

**ABBY: Oh, uh, when I was a kid, we lived near this lot where they brought all the burned out hulks from the narliest car wrecks. I used to sneak in there at night and take pictures. (Kate nods) It wasn't about the gore. It was about figuring out how things happened. You know, like action and reaction and the science of the whole thing. I got hooked. How 'bout you?**

"A lovely story," Tony wiped a fake tear out of his eye. "Just beautiful."

"Thanks, Tony." Abby smirked.

**KATE: Actually, I wanted to be a lawyer. I did a year of law school - felt like ten years in prison.**

"I wouldn't have even lasted a year." McGee sighed. "And that would feel like twenty years instead of ten."

**ABBY: With really boring inmates?**

**KATE: (chuckles) Uh huh.**

**ABBY: Admit it. You just like strapping on a gun.**

**KATE: More than one.**

**ABBY: Really? You packing more heat than meets the eye?**

**KATE: (nods) Those your only tattoos?**

**ABBY: You show me yours, I'll show you mine.**

**(Kate laughs.)**

The agents also shared a good laugh at that. They all missed Kate, but it was amusing to see some of their memories playing out on screen. Even if it was the work of a criminal.

***cut to Quantico base jumping school***

**(Gibbs and walk past a training area where an instructor is te** **aching new jumpers how to roll when they hit the ground.)**

**TONY: You ever jump?**

**GIBBS: When I get an electric shock.**

"I'll take that as a no." McGee whispered.

Ellie laughed before nodding in agreement with the other agent.

**TONY: Explains the lack of power tools.**

**GIBBS: (indicating trainees) You gonna do it?**

**TONY: What?**

**GIBBS: Spend $180 to defy gravity.**

**T** **ONY: Yeah, I think I am.**

"I was planning on doing it after the guy got caught, though." Tony commented. "Didn't want to get caught up in something like that, and..." he glanced at Gibbs, who was remaining stoic, "I didn't want to slow down the investigation, of course."

"Of course." Abby grinned.

**MARINE (calling from offscreen): Agent Gibbs!**

**(Gibbs and Tony turn around. A Marine jogs up to them carrying a mail package. He hands it to Gibbs.)**

**MARINE: This came for you, sir. I just missed you at the paraloft.**

**GIBBS: Thank you, Lance Corporal.**

**MARINE: Okay, sir. (leaves)**

**TONY: Who's it from?**

**GIBBS: (opening package) Ducky.**

**(The package is a new cell phone.)**

"You destroy a lot of those, Jethro." Ducky scolded gently. "It must be quite expensive to always replace them every single year."

Gibbs only shrugged in response. He wasn't in the mood for talking; all he was in the mood for was coffee at that point in time.

Fornell rolled his eyes, knowing exactly what was going through his head.

**(When Gibbs pulls the phone out of the box, a note falls to the ground. Tony picks it up and reads it. )**

**TONY: Jethro, bean counters couldn't find you so they gave this to me. I suggest you read the instructions on call blocking.**

**GIBBS: (sarcastically) That addressed to you?**

**(The new phone rings.)**

"Excellent timing." Bishop looks amused.

"Yeah, it would have been awkward to just have a ringing package." Tony joked.

**TONY: (helpfully) It works.**

**GIBBS (answering the new phone): Gibbs. Yeah, I'll be there in twenty. (hangs up, they go back to watching the trainees) You know, some of these guys freeze on their first jump. Have to be kicked in the ass to get 'em out.**

**TONY: Not me.**

"Of course not, Sir DiNozzo the Brave." Abby rolled her eyes.

**G** **IBBS: No. You fall into the category I want to kick in the ass on the ground.**

**(Gibbs forcefully shoves the empty box into Tony's gut, making him grunt. Gibbs leaves, Tony lingers to watch the trainees.)**

"Dreaming?" Jimmy asked.

"Yes, Autopsy Gremlin. It was very cool to watch." Tony grinned. "I wanted to try."

"That's obvious." McGee whispered to Ellie. "He's only been mentioning I every five minutes this episode."

***cut to Abby's lab***

**(Abby has the parachute spread out all over the lab. The lines are stretched taught in every direction like a spider's web. Abby moves through them carefully scanning each with a UV light. Gibbs and Tony walk in.)**

**TONY: Very electric kool-aid, Abby.**

**ABBY: I was thinking more Blue Man Group.**

**KATE: Sergeant Fuentes's chute wasn't the only one tampered with.**

"Why would there be more than one?" Jimmy inquired. "That just makes it a greater chance that whoever did it would get one."

"It could have been done by someone who wasn't jumping." Ellie suggested. "Someone who wouldn't have to take that risk."

**GIBBS: How many?**

**KATE: Nine, out of sixteen. Log book signatures show different riggers packed the lot.**

**GIBBS: How many did Corporal Dafelmair pack?**

**KATE: Four. The rest were packed by Corporal Brinkman and Sergeant Fuentes.**

**TONY: Corporal Ramsey didn't pack any?**

"Apparently not." Bishop sighed. "Makes him suspicious?"

"Yeah." McGee nodded.

Gibbs observed them. They both seemed to be following the evidence as they did and drawing similar if not the same conclusions. Whoever the sniper was, they knew how to put the video together in order to mess with the observers' minds.

**K** **ATE: Nope. When his signature didn't show up on a single chute, I called Captain Faul. He put Corporal Ramsey on a two-week rigging suspension for sloppy work. And guess who wrote him up for that sloppy work.**

**GIBBS: Senior rigger. Sergeant Fuentes.**

"But if it was random, how could Ramsey get Fuentes the tampered parachute?" Ellie inquired.

**(Kate nods)**

**TONY: We got motive.**

**ABBY: We got more than that. Kate and I have a theory.**

**TONY: Why didn't you take to me this fast?**

**ABBY: You're like a piercing, Tony. Takes a while for the throbbing to stop and the skin to grow back.**

**TONY: (smiles ruefully) That's more than I wanted to know.**

**GIBBS: What's the theory?**

**ABBY: Okay. Every time you lace up your Docs or cinch your laundry bag, you leave some skin cells behind. It's the same with the parachute rigging. (types at computer) I pulled skin samples from the deployment bags of the chutes that were futzed with.**

"So, you can figure out who was messing with the parachutes?" McGee inquired.

"Not necessarily the criminal, but we can figure out who came into contact with the deployment bags." Abby corrected.

"But there could be a large number of people who touched them." the tech wiz argued.

The forensic scientist nodded. "Yes, but it was something."

**GIBBS: Did you get a DNA signature?**

**ABBY: All nine knots had a number of different sets of skin samples, but there's only set that's common to all nine.**

**GIBBS: The saboteur.**

"Ramsey?" Ellie inquired. "That's who you think the saboteur is."

**KATE: Our riggers of record packed the chutes, then someone came in and repacked them, leaving some skin behind.**

**TONY: Corporal Ramsey.**

**ABBY: Well, depending on how much he knows about forensics, he's either very smart or very dumb.**

**GIBBS: There's gotta be other chutes that Corporal Ramsey packed in the paraloft inventory for comparison.**

"But he was suspended." Fornell cheekily mentioned.

"I meant from before that." Gibbs retorted, still thinking about his lack of coffee.

Abby slowly started twitching too, starting to think about Caf-Pow and caffeine and all things good.

**ABBY: Hnn, negatory. I checked. They were all packed since he's been suspended.**

**KATE: Well there's an Armed Forces DNA registry. All military personnel are on record, right?**

**GIBBS: Yeah.**

**KATE: (satisfied) Then we got our guy.**

**GIBBS: No. (sigh) All we got is a pile of dead scene. The only thing you can use the DNA registry for is to identify a body.**

"Well, at NCIS, we specialize in loopholes and breaking and entering to get our way." Tony grinned.

"Hey, Tony." Abby looked to the agent. "Remember when you and Timmy got arrested?"

The senior field agent paused for a moment, thinking about the dogs that had come after them. "Yes,"

**KATE: Well there has to be a way around that.**

**GIBBS: (proud) See, now you're thinking like an NCIS agent.**

"NCIS." Fornell groaned. "You know, we don't like it very much when you do that."

"We do, though." Gibbs argued.

"I bet you do. It means it goes your way and not mine."

**(Kate grins, pleased.)**

***cut to NCIS Headquarters, outdoors***

**Gibbs (in voice over): We know that nine parachutes were rigged to fail.**

***cut to Interrogation Room***

"How the hell does this guy have video of the interrogation room?" Vance growled out.

"They are recorded. He used that angle for some of it. Others...I don't know." McGee reported. "It's also strange how the camera moves sometimes. They aren't stationary, so they can't be mounted to something. It's almost like they are attached to something in the air."

**GIBBS: Killer doctored them and repacked them. Sergeant Fuentes died as a result of that. It's premeditated murder.**

**(T** **he camera pulls back to reveal who Gibbs was speaking with, and we see it is Lt. Bud Roberts crossing-over from JAG.)**

"This should be good." McGee leaned forward in anticipation.

**BUD: I'm sold. Hey, if I'm on the jury, you've got my vote.**

**KATE: We found DNA evidence on the chute deployment bag knots.**

**BUD: Belonging to your suspect?**

**KATE: We believe so. To be certain, we have to access the Armed Forces registry.**

"That's going to make him so happy." the tech wiz continued. "He's not going to like that."

**B** **UD: (scoffs) That's impossible! Registry was set up to identify remains only. He knows that.**

**GIBBS: I do?**

"Always acting innocent." Fornell sighed. "Even when they know that you know the rules."

"What am I supposed to do?" Gibbs argued. "I gotta get it somehow."

**BUD: You tried to use it when you after Commander Rabb, for murder.**

**KATE: He get him?**

**BUD: No, because he wasn't guilty. You couldn't use the DNA registry then, what makes you think you can use it now?**

"Asking nicely?" Tony looked hopeful. "Pouting? Puppy-dog eyes?"

"If only." Abby sighed. "Because then Gibbs would be able to get them every time. You know, just show those baby blues, and they'll come over."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow at her before looking back to the screen.

**GIBBS: You, lieutenant, you're a smart lawyer. (lurks over Bud's shoulder, takes his pen) And you know the law. (starts clicking the pen next to Bud's ears, one side then the other)**

"Now, you're messing with him." Fornell grimaced. "That's definitely going to get him on your side."

**BUD: I know why I'm here.**

**GIBBS: Oh, I hope so. I requested you.**

**BUD: Yeah, you requested me because you think you can work me like you did last time when I ratted out Commander Rabb.**

**GIBBS: You did not "rat" on anyone. You told the truth. (starts looking for lint on Bud's shoulder)**

**BUD: I, uh, gave my uniform an extra lint roll this morning, Agent Gibbs. And you waltzing around in my blind spot? Not gonna intimidate my this time.**

"So, it did last time?" Ellie inquired.

"Yup." Tony laughed. "I like how he gave his uniform an extra lint roll before coming. It's almost like he knew what the boss would be doing."

**GIBBS: We're at 24 hours now, soon it's going to be 48. You've done investigations, you know what that means?**

**BUD: I've done JAG nano-investigations, sure. At 48 hours, you're evidence begins to degrade. Disappeared witnesses change their stories, suspects improve theirs. I know.**

"I never understood why witnesses would change their stories. It's not like they experienced something different." Jimmy commented.

"Well, dear lad, sometimes the witnesses get more and more nervous as the investigation goes on. Sometimes being nervous makes people remember things differently, and when that happens, they'd want to report it to us." Ducky explained. "Suspects, however, only focus on how to improve theirs to get out of being convicted."

**KATE: So help us.**

**BUD: No! You're not going to get me to lawyer you passed an iron-clad prohibition that prevents tapping into DNA records that were designed to identify bodies. Not chase suspects.**

**GIBBS: This guy is guilty. He killed him. Let him drop to his death from 1300ft.**

"The fear Fuentes must have felt..." Ellie shivered at the thought.

"Falling is a very terrifying thing." Ducky reminded. "People don't just recover from it instantly. If he did survive, he could have been traumatized for the rest of his life."

**BUD: It doesn't matter.**

**GIBBS: For every legal firewall, there is a way around it.**

**BUD: (shakes head) I can't help you. And can I please have my pen back?**

"Don't you hate it when someone takes your pen?" Tony tutted.

The rest of the agents nodded seriously.

 

**GIBBS: Oh. Oh yeah, sure. (returns pen) You're gonna need it, because if I can't have my DNA I'm gonna need some search authorisations signed. (smiles conspiratorially at Kate)**

"You can't ever just let it be, can you?" Fornell looked amused.

"I wouldn't be a good agent if I didn't." Gibbs responded.

***cut to NCIS Headquarter's offices***

**KATE: You knew Lieutenant Roberts wasn't going to lawyer us access to the military database.**

**GIBBS: (innocently) Did I?**

"The innocence again." Fornell raised an eyebrow.

"What can I say? It can make people rethink what they were saying." Gibbs shrugged.

"A guide to deception." the FBI agent looked off into the distance. He paused before adding, "And manipulation."

**KATE: You did. So why go through the exercise?**

**GIBBS: Kate, I come from a long line of horse traders. First rule, you pick the best horse in the barn and you work the deal until it bursts.**

**T** **ONY: That way, when you go for the second best nag, you get her for a song.**

"More manipulation." Fornell looked blandly at the screen.

"Don't act like the FBI doesn't do it." Gibbs glanced at him.

**KATE: (realising) The search authorisation.**

**GIBBS: We didn't have probable cause. But the lieutenant, he's a man who aims to please. You never work the system, when you can work the people.**

"Because people are more likely to change and bend to your will." Tony mysteriously stated.

"Systems don't tend to bend all that much." McGee added on. "They are rigid."

**KATE: Any of those horse traders you come from get hung?**

**GIBBS: (glibly) Yeah, a few.**

**(Kate nods, unsurprised.)**

**GIBBS (to Tony): Did you find out what Ramsey was written up for?**

**TONY: Ah, yeah. (reads from clipboard) Frayed lines, bent cones, cuts in the canopy. Tell ya, I hope this guy isn't going to medical school at night. (remembers something) Oh, yeah! Scuttle butt is-**

"Frayed lines, bent cones, and cuts in the canopy?" Ellie frowned.

**KATE: Scuttle butt?**

**GIBBS: That's Marine, for watercooler gossip.**

"He always talks like Marine is a separate language." Tony hissed to Ellie.

Ellie nodded; she had gotten that far.

**(Kate nods in understanding)**

**TONY: The scuttle butt is that Ramsey took a swing at Thumper for getting him suspended.**

"Ramsey seems pretty likely, but I don't want to rule out Dafelmair." Ellie hissed.

McGee nodded in agreement.

**(Gibbs's cell phone rings. He pulls it out to look at the call display.)**

**GIBBS: Identity withheld.**

"It's her again." Tony whispered.

Fornell and Gibbs looked at each other and remembered Diane. She had argued with them a lot, and she was very fiery. But deep down, she did care for the both of them, and they cared about her. Which made it even more painful when she died.

**TONY: Probably the reason you married her.**

**(Kate looks up, interested. Gibbs looks annoyed.)**

**TONY: She probably hid her real personality. As most women do.**

"What about me?" Abby pouted.

"I said most, didn't I?" Tony offered.

"Good." the forensic scientist grinned.

**(Now Kate gives him a disgruntled look. The phone continues to ring.)**

**TONY: And by that time it was too late, because you'd already...**

**(Tony finally looks at Gibbs, who is staring at him. Just daring him to finish that sentence. Tony wisely withdraws. The phone keeps ringing.)**

**TONY (backing away): I'm gonna shut up now.**

"Good idea." McGee hastily nodded.

**G** **IBBS: (sarcastically) Now?**

**(Tony slinks back to his own desk. Quietly.)**

**KATE (to Tony): Do you really just say "as most women do"?**

**(T** **ony just gives her a petulant look.)**

"Childish." Abby taunted.

**GIBBS: Meet me at the paraloft at 14: 00. We'll execute our search authorisation to go through the riggers's lockers.**

**TONY: That's two o'clock Secret Service time, Kate.**

**KATE: (smugly) We used Zulu time, Tony.**

**TONY: (scratches his chin) Zulu time. Oh yeah, that'd be...**

"You don't know, do you?" McGee laughed. "Always trying to look impressive."

"Well, McUnimpressive," Tony retorted. "I do make an effort. And I can be impressive!" he whined.

"See? Childish." the forensic scientist continued to tease.

**KATE: 19: 00.**

**T** **ONY: (scoffs) I knew that.**

"Sure you did." McGee rolled his eyes.

**(Gibbs shakes his head and leaves.)**

***cut to Fuentes residence***

**(There's a kid up in an unfinished treehouse in the front yard. Gibbs looks at him as he walks up to the door. The he pauses, changes his mind, and approaches the kid instead.)**

"That poor boy," Ellie shook her head.

**GIBBS: Hey. Can I come up?**

**(The kid, a young boy, doesn't answer.)**

**GIBBS: Do I need a password?** **(no answer) Ah, maybe I'll just come up a little.**

**(Gibbs climbs up the ladder until he can the kid. The kid is sitting despondently, tearing up leaves in his bare unfinished treehouse. The treehouse itself is little more than a platform with posts at the corners.)**

**GIBBS: You really should have a password.**

**KID (finally looking at Gibbs): Why? (holding back tears) It's never gonna be finished. My dad's dead.**

The agents didn't comment during this scene, though the mood was despondent. They never liked it when a child lost a parent; it just lead to a lifetime of issues.

**GIBBS: Yeah. Yeah, I know.**

**WOMAN (calling from below): Who are you?**

**(Gibbs looks down. Two women are exiting from the house. He climbs back down the latter.)**

**GIBBS: I'm, ah, Jethro Gibbs. (shows badge) NCIS.**

**WOMAN: I don't have time to answer questions. We're on our way to the funeral.**

**GIBBS: I'm not here to ask questions.**

**WOMAN: Then why are you here?**

**KID: He says I need a password, mom.**

"Not what he was probably originally going for..." McGee whispered lowly to himself.

**WOMAN: What?**

**GIBBS: I told him a treehouse should have a password.**

**WOMAN: Oh. (looks at treehouse) Larry was building that for him.**

**GIBBS: Doing a good job.**

The agents nodded. It looked like Fuentes was doing a very good job, and Gibbs would know.

**WOMAN: Larry was a good man. A good husband, and a good father.**

**GIBBS: Good Marine.**

**WOMAN: There are rumours that his death wasn't an accident.**

**GIBBS: Whatever happens, Mrs. Fuentes, I'll find who's responsible.**

"You basically just told her that it wasn't an accident." Fornell glanced at him.

"She deserved to know." Gibbs responded.

**MRS. FUENTES: Billy, we have to go.**

**(Billy climbs down the ladder.)**

**(His mother starts brushing dust/dirt off his suit.)**

**MRS. FUENTES: Ah, look at you. All dusty. Come here, your hair's a mess. Where's your comb? (kid pulls a comb from his pocket) Larry always told him to carry a comb.**

"Always need to look sharp." Tony mumbled. When someone talked during this scene, it was always in a whisper out of respect for the Fuentes family.

**B** **ILLY: (combing hair) Like J.F.K. Whoever he is.**

**GIBBS: He was a Navy guy, like your dad was a Marine. (kneels to kid's level) Navy guys, Marines... they always look their best. Your dad would want you to look your best today for him.**

**BILLY: (tearfully) I don't want the Marines at the funeral to see me cry.**

**GIBBS: Never be ashamed of tears, bud.**

**BILLY: Marines don't cry.**

"Yeah, we do." Gibbs whispered.

**GIBBS: Yeah, they do. At J.F.K.'s funeral, his son saluted the coffin. You know how to salute?**

**(Billy steps back and demonstrates a text-book salute.)**

**GIBBS: (smiles) Perfect. You salute your dad today, nobody'll notice the tears.**

**(Billy nods. His mother smiles briefly in gratitude. Car starts up.)**

**MRS. FUENTES: We have to go.**

**(Gibbs stands and Mrs. Fuentes starts to lead her son away. She only gets a few feet before she stops and turns to look at Gibbs.)**

**MRS. FUENTES: I believe you'll get whoever did this.**

"She knows it wasn't an accident." Fornell grimaced. "Sometimes it is easier that way."

"What is easy isn't always right." Gibbs reminded.

**GIBBS: You have my word.**

***cut to Quantico para-training facility***

**(This time, Tony is the trainee getting lessons in how to jump and land properly. He's all decked out in the cammo gear, too.)**

"Having fun?" Ellie inquired.

"The time of my life," he grinned. The mood had changed drastically from the previous scene.

"What happened to waiting until after the case?" Gibbs remembered what he had said earlier on.

Tony blushed. "Couldn't hold the urge anymore."

**MARINE: Keep your feet together, cushion the impact.**

**TONY: That's it?**

**MARINE: You signed the release to notify next of kin, right?**

**TONY: (huffs a laugh) Just don't say break a leg.**

**(The Marine pats him on the back and Tony turns sideways to jump the five feet to the ground. He hits hard, but manages to roll back up to his feet. Gibbs and Kate are approaching, watching him.)**

**TONY (to Marine): How was that?**

**KATE: Very ladylike.**

"Scared the crap out of me." Tony winced. "Not Kate, just the surprise of both of them being there."

**GIBBS: DiNozzo! What are you doing?**

**TONY: Ah... (takes off helmet) Just doing a little research for Abby.**

**GIBBS: (doubtful) For Abby?**

**T** **ONY: Well, maybe I'm serving two masters.**

"You just wanted to jump." McGee smirked.

"Well, Abby-" Tony started to make an excuse, but the video cut him off.

**GIBBS: (crooks a finger) You're serving one, now.**

**KATE: How did you get into NCIS?**

**TONY: I smiled. (grins)**

"I'm surprised that didn't scare everyone away." McGee sighed.

"My smile is worth a million bucks. Way more than yours." Tony sat up straighter.

***cut to paraloft***

**MARINE: I had the riggers's lockers sealed immediately after the incident.**

**(Tony, Gibbs, and Kate snap on gloves. Thumper's string of jumpers are lined up in front of them.)**

**GIBBS (to Ramsey): Keys?**

**(Ramsey passes the first set of keys over and Gibbs gives them to Kate. She opens Ramsey's locker. DiNozzo gets the next set of keys, and checks Dafelmair's locker. Gibbs takes Brinkman's. All three thorough search the lockers. Kate finds a small box full of stuff.)**

**KATE: Got something.**

"She was searching Ramsey's." Ellie recalled.

"This guy can't get any more suspicious." McGee sighed.

"I'll bet he can." Bishop responded. "But Dafelmair is still a possibility."

**(She sets the box down on the table and starts carefully unloading it. Rags, tools, a canister of something.)**

**GIBBS: (picking up canister) Brass-stripper solvent.**

**KATE: Read the contents.**

**(Gibbs flips the container over and tries to read the small print on the back, but can't make it out without his glasses. He passes it back to Tony with a wince.)**

**TONY: (reading contents) Contains petroleum distillate, ammonia, and sulfuric acid. Harmful if swallowed. Or applied to shroud lines.**

"So, is it him?" McGee frowned. "But if he is about to be arrested, there is still a lot of time left in this video."

"Maybe something else happens." Ellie suggested. "Like new evidence or something."

**KATE: Ramsey's locker.**

**RAMSEY: That stuff's not mine.**

**GIBBS: Sergeant Nutt, place the corporal in custody. Tony, read him.**

**TONY: (while Sgt. cuffs Cpl.) You have the right to remain silent.**

**(Tony keeps reading Ramsey his rights while Gibbs relocks his locker. )**

***cut to Interrogation room, NCIS headquarters***

"It is still alarming how many places this sniper has cameras." Jimmy shivered.

"They must have very good connections." Ducky nodded. "It is very unlikely that they were able to do this all on their own."

"So, accomplices?" Gibbs looked to Ducky. "How many?"

"There must be a good number. Perhaps an entire organization. Whichever it is, they certainly put a lot of effort into making your life a television show. They must be very obsessed."

**(Gibbs has Cpl. Ramsey in the room. Gibbs is twirling the corporal's keys around his finger.)**

**GIBBS: Scuttle butt has it that you and Thumper mixed it up in the paraloft.**

**RAMSEY: We exchanged words, sir.**

"Words sometimes evolve into fists." Tony sagaciously stated as he gestured around the room to prove his point.

**GIBBS: And fists.**

**RAMSEY: Punch or two was thrown, nothing serious. I damn sure wasn't angry enough to kill him, sir.**

**GIBBS: Well maybe you only meant to scare him. But Thumper was on painkillers and didn't have time to pull his reserve.**

**RAMSEY: I didn't touch his chute, sir. How could I? I'm on suspension. The paraloft is under lock and key.**

"He could have gotten the key off of someone else. Or maybe he has an accomplice?" Bishop started to think.

"That would explain all the time left in the video." McGee agreed.

**(Tony enters the observation room. Kate's already there.)**

**KATE: What'd you find?**

**TONY: Hardware store where our guy did one-stop shopping. Clerk's pretty fussy. He does remember a Marine in a real hurry to copy a key.**

**(Kate nods. In the Interrogation room, Gibbs reveals a duplicate key.)**

**GIBBS: All you needed was a key. Like this one. (Ramsey looks nervous) I found this one in Thumper's personal effects.**

**RAMSEY: If that's the paraloft key, you won't find one like that on my keychain.** **(Gibbs checks key matches) I've messed up some rigging, sir, but never intentionally. A guy jumps with one of my chutes, he puts his life in my hands. I never breached that trust, sir, never.**

**GIBBS: Now. (holds up key match) Are you gonna tell me that was a plant too?**

**RAMSEY: (desperately) Had to be. I'm not guilty, sir.**

"Always so sincere." Tony recalled what he had said earlier.

**(In the observation room, Kate rolls her eyes at Tony.)**

**TONY: They're always so sincere when they say that.**

McGee looked between the screen and Tony, but he didn't say anything.

**(Gibbs stares at Ramsey, who is on the verge of freaking out.)**

**GIBBS: What if I was to give you an offer to prove that?**

**RAMSEY: Anything, sir.**

**GIBBS: Maybe you'd be willing to give us a sample of your DNA.**

**RAMSEY: Someone put that box in my locker and that key on my keychain. How do I know that you don't have my DNA on something else they planted too?**

"That is a good point." Bishop mentioned. "It isn't that hard to get someone's DNA. And if all that stuff was planted, then they could put the DNA on it too."

**GIBBS: (smirks) You don't.**

***cut to NCIS Headquarter's offices***

**(Gibbs is reading a file, or trying to. He closes it in frustration and tosses like a frisbee to Tony.)**

**GIBBS: DiNozzo, where'd you learn how to write? China?**

**KATE: I'd say Egypt, looks more like hieroglyphics.**

"I learned in the United States." Tony answered in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I think they are meaning that your hand writing sucks." McGee smirked.

**TONY: (indignantly) Hey! You were in a rush to read it.**

**GIBBS: (salutes him with his mug of coffee) My mistake.**

**KATE: Are those the interviews of the Marines that didn't jump?**

**TONY: Yeah, it's not very interesting...**

"They're still important." Bishop commented.

**(While Tony tells Kate what's in the file, Abby steps off the elevator and into the offices. She carrying a box with a cotton swab in it.)**

**ABBY: Corporal Ramsey finally gave it up. His mouth was drier than mummy dust. I had to swap it four times to get a decent DNA sample.**

**G** **IBBS: How long to test for a match to the skin cells?**

**A** **BBY: Well, if you want no [??time stamp 33: 01??] in court, you've gotta give me 24.**

"That's a lot of time." McGee winced.

"It was necessary, though." Abby responded. "You don't want me to rush and make a mistake, do you?"

"No," the tech wiz assured.

**GIBBS: Abby, clock's ticking.**

**KATE: You don't expect a guilty man to give up his DNA.**

Ellie nodded, following along with the investigation. Kate's right. You don't expect that to happen.

**TONY: Well, he's rolling the dice. Hoping for that one-in-a-million shot it won't match.**

**KATE: Guilty people do that?**

**TONY: (huffs) All the time.**

**GIBBS: Uh, Kate has a point. What if Ramsey was set up? What if, what if he's innocent? What if he's telling the truth?**

**TONY: Well we'll know in 24 hours but I wouldn't bet on it.**

**GIBBS: (gets up, puts on coat) Well, you know what, I don't like sitting on my ass waiting for a DNA match.**

"Neither do I." Fornell leaned forward. "You going to get more info now?"

"Yup."

**KATE: (gets up, grabs gun) There are only two other possible suspects. Corporal Dafelmair or Brinkman.**

**GIBBS: No, there's three. You're forgetting Captain Faul. He's got a key to the paraloft. (sees Tony getting up putting his holster on) Where do you think you're going, bubba? You've got a report to finish.**

"I hate reports." Tony complained.

***cut to Captain Faul's office***

**FAUL: Sergeant Fuentes was one of the finest NCOs in my command. He was tough on his riggers, but fair. Ah, I still find it difficult to believe his reporting Corporal Ramsey drove him to murder.**

**KATE: Corporal Ramsey hasn't been proven guilty yet, Captain.**

**FAUL: You're holding him. Scuttle butt is he's confessed.**

**GIBBS: Never knew a Marine captain who believed scuttle butt.**

"Some of them probably do." Fornell looked to him.

"Maybe, but I've certainly never met one." Gibbs shook his head.

**(Gibbs grins at his own statement. Cpt. Faul does not look amused.)**

**GIBBS: How did you prepare the day of the exercise?**

**FAUL: I spent the morning in [trout??] talk with the Naval aviators piloting the C-130.**

**GIBBS: The nest used a Navy bird?**

**FAUL: Most of ours are deployed in Iraq.**

**KATE: You eat lunch with them?**

**FAUL: At the Officer's Mess. After lunch, we had a couple of dry runs, had another [trop??] talk, and then loaded up. Why?**

**GIBBS: Do you have your paraloft key, Captain?**

**(Faul opens his drawer and pulls out his keychain. He displays his paraloft key to Gibbs.)**

"Well," Ellie looked to McGee. "He has one."

**GIBBS (to Kate, but not quietly): Corporal Ramsey must have lifted Sergeant Fuentes's key long enough to make a duplicate.**

**FAUL: Corporal Ramsey made a key to the paraloft.**

**GIBBS: It's the only way he could have slipped in to sabotage the chutes. (shakes hands with Faul)**

**KATE: Thank you. (shakes hands with Faul)**

**FAUL: Thank you. (fiddles with keychain) Why didn't you just ask to see my key?**

**GIBBS (pausing at door): Agent Todd is new, just teaching her how to interrogate.**

"Sure you are." Fornell pursed his lips. "You wanted info."

"I could have been teaching her."

**FAUL: The paraloft was secured between 09: 00 and 18: 00. That's why you wanted to know what I was doing all day. You suspected me.**

"Without even reading his rights." the FBI agent straightened a little. "NCIS agents, jeez."

"We do things our own way." Gibbs defended.

"The not-always-legal way?"

"Don't act like FBI doesn't do it too."

"You've said that before.:

"Doesn't make it any less true."

 

**KATE (to Gibbs, playing along): If the captain were a suspect, we would have read him his rights, wouldn't we?**

**G** **IBBS: (smirks) Very good, Agent Todd, very good.**

**(Kate grins at Cpt. Faul and follows Gibbs out. Faul watches them leave.)**

***cut to NCIS Headquarter's offices***

**(Gibbs and Kate walk off the elevator onto the floor. Tony hands Gibbs his typed-up report.)**

"Finally finish the dreaded report?" Abby teased.

"Only after hours of hard labor." Tony nodded. "I slaved over that thing forever."

**TONY: The Captain have an alibi?**

**KATE: He was no where near the paraloft when the chute's were sabotaged.**

**TONY: Ramsey's the dirtbag.**

**KATE: It could still be Dafelmair or Brinkman.**

Bishop and McGee continued to nod along with them.

**GIBBS (reading from Tony's report): Sergeant Fuentes supervised the riggers handing out chutes.**

**TONY: Yeah, he watches the riggers from the back of the truck.**

**GIBBS: Ramsey participated.**

**TONY: Well, he's on suspension from rigging, not passing out chutes or jumping.**

**KATE: (theorising) He could have given Thumper a dirty chute.**

**GIBBS: (looking up) What'd you say?**

**KATE: Ramsey. Could have given Thumper a sabotaged chute.**

**GIBBS: No, you said "dirty".**

McGee looked confused. "What?"

**KATE: What?**

McGee smiled now, glad to have something in common with his passed friend.

**TONY: With Gibbs, you never know.**

**(Gibbs takes off quickly, having an idea. Kate and Tony follow in confusion.)**

***cut to Abby's lab***

**GIBBS: Abby, I need to see Sergeant Fuentes's reserve chute.**

**ABBY: Might want to take a look at this first. (indicates her wall monitor) Now that I'm only running one DNA analysis, I finally had time to do a particle pick on the shroud lines. You're looking at the infrared of Bolivia's best.**

"Now there are drugs involved?" Ellie looked alarmed. "Possible motive? He could have gotten caught and wanted to ensure that he would rat on him."

Gibbs nodded, looking proud at his agent.

**TONY: Cocaine?**

**GIBBS: The killer's using?**

**ABBY: No, the rock's too pure. The residue on his skin is probably from cutting and weighing.**

**KATE: (rhetorically) Why don't I think Thumper was killed for reporting Corporal Ramsey's rigging?**

**GIBBS (to Abby): Where's Thumper's reserve chute?**

**ABBY: It's over here. (picks up a plastic wrapped bag) I already checked it, Gibbs. It's clean.**

**GIBBS: (puts on gloves, lifts flap on chute) Know what, it's too clean. Too clean for someone who smashed into a tree and an SUV. (to Abby) Where's the other jump gear we confiscated.**

McGee nodded. "It would be dirty if it was the same one Fuentes jumped in."

"It was changed?" Ellie inquired.

"Seems likely."

**ABBY: I stored it in the Ballistics lab after I tested it.**

**(They all go into the other room.** **Gibbs starts searching through the bagged chutes.)**

**ABBY: What're you looking for?**

**GIBBS: Ramsey. Dafelmair's. Brinkman's gear. Here's one. (moves it to make it more accessible, Abby starts cutting the plastic wrap open)**

**TONY: What are you looking for?**

**GIBBS: A screwed pooch.**

**(Abby finds and cuts open the bagged chutes of the other two guys. Gibbs starts opening them up and taking them apart to check the reserve chute tucked away inside. On the second one, he finds it. )**

**GIBBS: Here it is, it's dirty. (holds it up so we can read the number "13" printed on side) This is the reserve that Thumper jumped with.**

Ellie and McGee breathed a sigh of relief. They were still practicing, and they wouldn't have gotten that if Gibbs hadn't had that realization. But that was okay. Gibbs was always going to be there, right?

Right.

**ABBY: Unlucky thirteen.**

**GIBBS: Someone pulled a switch after he hit the SUV.**

**(Gibbs tests the reserve chute by pulling on the pin. Nothing happens. He flips a flap and sees why.)**

**GIBBS: The cones been soldered in place. Doesn't matter if the painkillers slowed his judgement, he couldn't use this chute.**

**TONY: (starts looking for a label) Hey, how's ruck sack is this?**

**(Gibbs finds the label with the owner's name on it. Everyone shares a look.)**

"The name of the killer is on it?" McGee guessed.

Gibbs nodded, but he didn't say anything.

"Sometimes he talks, and others he is unusually quiet." Tony hissed. "Caffeine withdrawal?

"Likely." the tech wiz nodded in agreement.

**GIBBS: Call Captain Faul. Tell him jump ops can resume, we've got our killer.**

**KATE: Do I tell him who?**

**GIBBS: Nope. I don't want DNA evidence, I want this b*st*rd to confess.**

**(Kate nods, leaves to make call)**

**TONY: How we gonna do that?**

**GIBBS: (tosses sabotaged chute at Tony) Where this when we jump.**

"Well, you wanted to jump, right?" McGee grinned. "Now, you get to."

"You wound me, McGoo. I had a faulty chute. I could have died." Tony put his hand over his heart.

The tech wiz shrugged. "You are still here. Obviously, you were fine."

**TONY: Jump?**

***cut to airplane, night***

**(A line of paratroopers are boarding the C-130 parked outside the hanger. Tony and Gibbs, in full paratrooper regalia, join the procession. They pause when they get to the hatch.)**

**GIBBS: Hey, Cap!**

**FAUL: Aren't you a little old to re-up?**

**GIBBS: (drolly) I hear there's a war on.**

**FAUL: Agent DiNozzo, I can't tell if your enlisting or just listing.**

**TONY: (struggling under the weight of the pack) Ha, ha, ha. That's a good one.**

"You struggling?" Abby grinned.

"No," Tony looked unconvincing.

"He's trying to be all impressive again." McGee observed. "Failing at it too."

**GIBBS: We're going with you, boys. NCIS training mission.**

**FAUL: (rolls his eyes) Now why don't I believe that?** **(Gibbs stares at him) Hell, why not? Hate to pass up the opportunity to toss a couple of NCIS agents out of a plane. (gives Gibbs his hand to haul him aboard) The plane takes off.**

**BRINKMAN (to Tony): Why you jumping with us, sir?**

**TONY: Always wanted to jump. Agent Gibbs came along to laugh.**

**DAFELMAIR: Hare to believe Dave killed Thumper over a lousy two-week suspension, sir.**

"Very hard to believe." Ellie narrowed her eyes at Dafelmair. He was the first to mention Fuentes, so did that mean that it was him? The guilty always do things like that.

**GIBBS: Yeah.**

**BRINKMAN: Thumper rode him, sir. But no more than the rest of us. Just doesn't make sense.**

**T** **ONY (acting like he just noticed his reserve chute has "13" on it): Oh no!**

**GIBBS: What, chickening out?**

**TONY: (scowls at Gibbs) Thirteen. It's my first jump and my reserve is number thirteen?**

"You're trying to switch your parachute." McGee realized. "Trying to get someone to confess?"

Tony nodded. "Nice of you to catch up, McSlow."

**GIBBS: (leadingly) Wouldn't have bothered Thumper, would it guys? (Dafelmair and Brinkman share a look) Is either of you superstitious?**

**MARINES (together): No, sir!**

**GIBBS: Great! (to Tony) Why don't you swap with Corporal Brinkman.**

**TONY (to Brinkman): What's your reserve chute number?**

**BRINKMAN: Four.**

**TONY: Four? (looks at Gibbs) Four is unlucky in China.**

"Now, you are getting a bit ridiculous." McGee looked amused.

"It's Dafelmair." Ellie mumbled under her breath as she realized who the killer was.

**GIBBS: We're not in China.**

**TONY: I don't care. (to Dafelmair) What's your number?**

**DAFELMAIR: Eight.**

**TONY: Great! (to Gibbs) Eight's lucky in China.**

**(Tony takes off his reserve chute and offers it to Dafelmair. Dafelmair just looks at it.)**

The agents leaned forward, and anyone who didn't already know who it was realized that Dafelmair was the killer.

**GIBBS: There a problem? (stares at Dafelmair)**

**DAFELMAIR: (hesitates) No, sir.**

**(Dafelmair unhooks his reserve chute and switches it for Tony's. He stares at Gibbs the whole time. An alarm beeps.)**

**FAUL: Stand up!**

**(The men grasp hands to haul each other up to their feet in the cramped space. Gibbs and Dafelmair help each other - neither looks pleased. Dafelmair takes the lead in the string, Gibbs right behind him.)**

Fornell growled a bit, not very pleased that Dafelmair was the one with Gibbs. Gibbs only looked at him, slightly amused be his reaction, but he still didn't say anything.

"I think our operation is progressing nicely." Tony whispered. "You think they'll confess soon?"

"This is Gibbs we are talking about. And Fornell. Very unlikely." McGee managed out. "They are both very private."

**FAUL: Hook up!**

**(The men hook on to the static lines and start to move forward.)**

**GIBBS: Thumper ride you, Corporal Dafelmair?**

**DAFELMAIR: He rode everybody, sir.**

**GIBBS: About being a drug dealer? (Dafelmair stops and stares at him) That's his reserve chute you're wearing. The one you switched on him when he landed.**

**DAFELMAIR: (looks down at chute, worriedly) Don't know what you're talking about, sir.**

"Yes, he does." Ellie laughed a bit.

**TONY: You were the first one down. First one to get to Thumper. Ramsey was helping Brinkman out of a tree.**

"He was able to switch the chute out then." Bishop looked as if she had succeeded in completing a marathon.

**BRINKMAN: What's he saying, Paul?**

**DAFELMAIR: I don't know!**

**TONY: Only takes a couple of minutes to switch a bad chute for a good one.**

**GIBBS: Marine Corps gave you a second chance. When Thumper found out you soiled the uniform by dealing drugs, he wouldn't do it.**

**FAUL: I thought Corporal Ramsey was guilty.**

"So did we." McGee confessed, and Ellie nodded.

"So did we." Tony repeated what McGee had said, only gesturing to the rest of the room.

**DAFELMAIR: (aggressively) He is, sir!**

**(Gibbs draws a small pocket knife.)**

**GIBBS: [Fa bra??], Corporal. Prove it. (cuts Dafelmair's main chute line)**

**FAUL: What the hell you doing?! His main can't open.**

**GIBBS: He's got a reserve!**

**DAFELMAIR: Captain, this is nuts! You gonna put a stop to this, sir?**

**(Everyone looks at each other. It's a tense moment. Then the alarm beeps again.)**

**FAUL (checking watch): Thirty seconds 'til drop.**

"Thirty seconds to make a confession." Vance grimaced. "You know, if Dafelmair had jumped, you would have been up for murder, Agent Gibbs?"

Gibbs nodded. "I knew he would confess though. He didn't seem like the type to kill himself."

"It was still a big risk." the director warned.

**GIBBS (to Dafelmair): A confession right now of your drug supplier will get you a deal.**

**DAFELMAIR: (thinks about it for a few seconds) How good a deal?**

**GIBBS: (sneers) Read him his Article 31s.**

**TONY: (unhooking to step forward) You have the right to remain silent.**

**BRINKMAN (interrupting): He doesn't deserve a deal!**

"Uh oh," Ellie understood what was about to happen.

"When one discovers that someone close to them killed someone else close to them, they get understandably angry." Ducky wisely stated.

**(Brinkman attacks Dafelmair and in the confusion of the scuffle, Tony gets knocked off the plane. He screams on the way down. Gibbs runs to the hatch to look out.)**

**GIBBS: (sees Tony's canopy open) Goodbye, DiNozzo.**

"Farewell," Tony waved back to his boss.

Gibbs raised an eyebrow, but he didn't seem to be in the mood for slapping him. Tony briefly wondered why that was, but he dismissed his concerns quickly.

**TONY: Whoohooo!!**

***cut to NCIS Headquarter's offices***

**(The television is playing a news broadcast. Sgt. Fuentes's picture is on the screen with the image of a waving American Flag behind him.)**

**NEWS ANCHOR (on TV): Military authorities arrested a Marine and charged him with murder, in connection with Larry Fuentes's tragic parachute mishap three days ago.**

**TONY (watching broadcast): We ever gonna make the eleven o'clock news?**

**GIBBS: Could have happened tonight if you broke your neck.**

"I wanted my body intact, though!" Tony pouted.

**TONY: Well, it's been a long one. (puts on weapon) You leaving soon?**

**GIBBS (writing a report): Mmmhmm.**

**TONY: Alright. (grabs coat and keys) G'night.**

**(Tony leaves. Gibbs watches him limp past, favouring his right leg, and smiles. Then his cell phone rings. Gibbs drops his pen and flips open the cell, holding it up so we can read the call display. It says "Caller ID Withheld". Gibbs stands up and throws the phone into a drawer.)**

"I wonder what it will show later on. You know, when Diane starts to appear, and the three of us hang at your place." Fornell mentioned quietly, so only Gibbs could hear.

"The sniper could have ignored that. Left it out." Gibbs whispered back.

***cut to Fuentes residence, early morning***

**(We hear hammer noises. Billy Fuentes comes out of the house in his pyjamas. He looks up at his treehouse and sees Gibbs, hammering a board into place as a railing.)**

**BILLY: Can I come up?**

**GIBBS: You got a password?**

**BILLY: Yes, sir. Semper Fi!**

**GIBBS: (grins) That's a good password. Come on up.**

**(Billy climbs up to the treehouse and he and Gibbs work together to finish building the treehouse.)**

The agents smile at the end scene, happy that it was peaceful.

***END CREDITS*  
**

"Let's continue." Vance announced. "I want as many of these watched today as possible, and then I want all of you relocated to a safe house. If your pictures were on our sniper's wall, it is not good news."

Gibbs groaned at the prospect of having to go to a safe house and not have any coffee.


End file.
